Inside Libya's slave market

Have we stepped back in time? A slave market in this modern times? Really?! Smh. It's heartbreaking just thinking of it, auctioning off human beings like they are a piece of commodity. And these people are majorly migrants in search for better lives and opportunities.

CNN gives a better picture of the hell hole these people are in.

 

'Each year, tens of thousands of people pour across Libya's borders. They're refugees fleeing conflict or economic migrants in search of better opportunities in Europe.

 

Most have sold everything they own to finance the journey through Libya to the coast and the gateway to the Mediterranean.

 

But a recent clampdown by the Libyan coastguard means fewer boats are making it out to sea, leaving the smugglers with a backlog of would-be passengers on their hands.

So the smugglers become masters, the migrants and refugees become slaves.

 

"Eight hundred," says the auctioneer. "900 ... 1,000 ... 1,100 ..." Sold. For 1,200 Libyan dinars -- the equivalent of $800. 

 

Not a used car, a piece of land, or an item of furniture. Not "merchandise" at all, but two human beings.

 

One of the unidentified men being sold in the grainy cell phone video obtained by CNN is Nigerian. He appears to be in his twenties and is wearing a pale shirt and sweatpants.

He has been offered up for sale as one of a group of "big strong boys for farm work," according to the auctioneer, who remains off camera. Only his hand -- resting proprietorially on the man's shoulder -- is visible in the brief clip.

 

After seeing footage of this slave auction, CNN worked to verify its authenticity and traveled to Libya to investigate further.

 

Carrying concealed cameras into a property outside the capital of Tripoli last month, we witness a dozen people go "under the hammer" in the space of six or seven minutes.

"Does anybody need a digger? This is a digger, a big strong man, he'll dig," the salesman, dressed in camouflage gear, says. "What am I bid, what am I bid?"

 

Buyers raise their hands as the price rises, "500, 550, 600, 650 ..." Within minutes it is all over and the men, utterly resigned to their fate, are being handed over to their new "masters."After the auction, we met two of the men who had been sold. They were so traumatized by what they'd been through that they could not speak, and so scared that they were suspicious of everyone they met. 

 

 One of the detained migrants, a young man named Victory, says he was sold at a slave auction. Tired of the rampant corruption in Nigeria's Edo state, the 21-year-old fled home and spent a year and four months -- and his life savings -- trying to reach Europe.

 

He made it as far as Libya, where he says he and other would-be migrants were held in grim living conditions, deprived of food, abused and mistreated by their captors.

 

"If you look at most of the people here, if you check your bodies, you see the marks. They are beaten, mutilated."

 

When his funds ran out, Victory was sold as a day laborer by his smugglers, who told him that the profit made from the transactions would serve to reduce his debt. But after weeks of being forced to work, Victory was told the money he'd been bought for wasn't enough. He was returned to his smugglers, only to be re-sold several more times.The smugglers also demanded ransom payments from Victory's family before eventually releasing him.

 

While many of his friends from Nigeria have made it to Europe, Victory is resigned to returning home empty-handed.

 

"I could not make it, but I thank God for the life of those that make it," he says.

"I'm not happy," he adds. "I go back and start back from square one. It's very painful. Very painful." '

 

Each year for the past three years, more than 150,000 migrants and refugees have crossed into Europe from Libya in hopes of making their way to a new life. It’s a treacherous journey. More than 3,000 people have drowned  each of the past four years trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

 

*This is so sad. I bet these people will give anything just to be back home. No matter how bad their condition was before they left, it is nothing compared to being treated like animals. Smh.

 

Let's learn to be thankful and patient. There are people passing through worse ordeals than you are. Another thing: if you want to obtain something, for instance a better life just like these migrants desire, please do it the right way. Don't take short cuts. God's gift makes rich and adds no sorrow.

Really sad.