Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports &
articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Libya.htm
Libya is a transit
and destination country for men and women from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual
exploitation. Migrants typically seek employment in Libya as laborers and
domestic employees or transit Libya en route to
Europe. In some cases,
smuggling debts and illegal status leave migrants vulnerable to coercion,
resulting in cases of forced prostitution and forced labor; employers of
irregular migrants sometimes withhold payment or travel documents. As in
previous years, there were reports that women from sub-Saharan Africa were
trafficked to Libya for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. - U.S.
State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June,
2009 Check out a later country report here and possibly a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you
like to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Tommy Calvert, Jr.,
Chief of External Operations, American Anti-Slavery Group, January 29, 2003 jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/10638.htm [accessed 18
February 2011] Many of you are
aware of the plight of southern Sudanese who are enslaved in Not only does Libya
have a long record of supporting international terrorism but Libya has also
terrorized its own people through torture, persecution of political
opposition, suppression of workers rights, and arbitrary prison detainment of
innocent people considered a threat to the state. How can a nation that does not actively
prevent the sale of slaves be permitted to chair the UN Commission on Human
Rights? ***
ARCHIVES *** How
to stop the slave trade in Libya and beyond’ Maurice Middleberg, CNN, 5 January 2021 www.cnn.com/2018/01/05/opinions/maurice-middleberg-stopping-the-slave-trade/index.html [accessed 16 February 2021] The men
who ended up being captured and sold in Libya were migrating because the
conditions in their home communities are so desperate that risky behaviors
seem warranted. Punishing
the slave traders and repatriating the victims, while needed, will not change
the objective reality that drives migration. Moreover, the families, friends
and neighbors in those communities are in a similar situation. That’s why
it’s important to think of slavery as an ill befalling vulnerable
communities, rather than individuals. Slavery
stems from vulnerability. Slave traders and slaveholders most often target
the hamlets, villages and neighborhoods that are impoverished, marginalized
and stigmatized. Bangladeshis killed
in Libya: Injured survivors recount haunting experience Hasan Al Javed, Dhaka Tribune, 4 October 2020 [accessed 7 October
2020] On 28 May, 26
Bangladeshi citizens were killed and 12 others injured, in a gun attack by
human traffickers in Mizdah, Libya. Citizens of
Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana, and Sudan who wanted to
go to Italy or France in Europe, were taken to war-torn Libya via
India-Dubai-Egypt on travel visas. There, youths from Bangladesh and other
countries were sold, or kidnapped and tortured for ransom money. There were 130-140
people from Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana, including 30-40 women, who were also
held captive, he added. Regarding going
abroad, most of the victims said they were assured of work visas in Europe by
local brokers and signed agreements for Tk12-15 lakh. Then, as instructed
by the brokers, they arrived at the airport in Benghazi from either Hazrat Shahjalal Airport in
Dhaka or Mumbai airport, via Dubai-Egypt. They were sold to human traffickers
in Libya after they arrived in Benghazi. Libya: 85 percent
of migrants subjected to torture Agenzia Nazionale
Stampa Associata (Italian news agency) ANSA, 20
March 2020 www.infomigrants.net/en/post/23580/libya-85-percent-of-migrants-subjected-to-torture [accessed 7 April
21, 2020] A report by the
organization Doctors for Human Rights has found that 85% of migrants and
refugees who reached Italy from Libya had been subjected to torture in the
African country. Doctors for Human
Rights (MEDU) released a report titled "The Torture Factory" on
Tuesday. The organization gathered accounts from more than 3,000 migrants and
refugees who had reached Italy from Libya between 2014 and 2020
. They found that 85%
of those migrants and refugees had been subjected to "torture, violence,
and inhumane and degrading treatment" in Libya. Two-thirds had
reportedly been detained. Almost 50% had been kidnapped or nearly died. Nine out
of ten said they had watched someone die, be killed, or tortured. "A high number
of those interviewed said they were subjected to forced labor or conditions
of slavery for months or years," according to the reports. Somali torture
survivor reunited with her sons in Niger Louise Donovan, UN
High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR, Niamey Niger, 11 April 2018 www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2018/4/5acc80524/somali-torture-survivor-reunited-sons-niger.html [accessed 15 April
2018] "When I
arrived in Libya, I was walking, nobody had to help me … but look at me
now," she says, holding up her badly broken arms in despair, her legs
paralyzed. The 42-year-old is
among thousands of refugees and asylum seekers from across Africa who set out
on desperate journeys in search of safety, who all too often end up the
captives of ruthless human traffickers in Libya. Held for ransom for
months in dire conditions, many are subjected to abuse and torture that marks
them for life. She was given
electric shocks and beaten, she says. “They always tied my hands behind my
back, and afterwards, they would leave me outside, tied up in the cold.” 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Libya U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/libya/
[accessed 14 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR In 2018 the UN
Security Council imposed sanctions against a commander from the Libyan Coast
Guard and three other Libyans with close links to fundamentalist terror
groups for their roles in human trafficking and labor exploitation. The
resources, inspections, and penalties for violations were insufficient to
deter violators. There were numerous
anecdotal reports of migrants and IDPs being subjected to forced labor by
human traffickers. According to numerous press reports, individuals were
compelled to support the armed groups that enslaved them, including by
preparing and transporting weapons. Others were forced to perform manual
labor on farms, at industrial and construction facilities, and in homes under
threat of violence. Private employers
sometimes used detained migrants from prisons and detention centers as forced
labor on farms or construction sites; when the work was completed or the
employers no longer required the migrants’ labor, employers returned them to
detention facilities. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT There were reports
of children forced into labor or military service by nonstate
armed groups. These accounts were difficult to verify due to the absence of
independent monitoring organizations and the ongoing hostilities. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/libya/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 1 May 2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? There are few protections
against exploitative labor practices. Forced labor, sexual exploitation,
abuse in detention facilities, and starvation are widespread among migrants
and refugees from sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, many
of whom are beholden to human traffickers. The International Organization for
Migration reported that there were more than 654,000 migrants in Libya at the
end of 2019. Libya lacks
comprehensive laws criminalizing human trafficking, and the authorities have
been either incapable of enforcing existing bans or complicit in trafficking
activity. Traffickers have taken advantage of civil unrest to establish
enterprises in which refugees and migrants are loaded into overcrowded boats
that are then abandoned in the Mediterranean Sea, where passengers hope to be
rescued and taken to Europe. The voyages often result in fatalities. Migrants in Libya
risk rape and torture before reaching Mediterranean Louisa Loveluck, The Telegraph, Cairo, 11 May 2015 [accessed 19 May
2015] Many would-be
migrants are handed over to criminal groups when they enter Libya, according
to the report by Amnesty International, published as the European Union
prepares to secure a UN mandate for armed action in the country’s territorial
waters. The smugglers or
criminal groups sometimes hold their charges for ransom, extracting payment
through torture, the report says. Those who are unable to pay are often held
as slaves. A 17-year-old boy
from Ivory Coast is quoted as saying, when he told his captor that he had no
family members left alive to pay a ransom, the beatings intensified and he
was told: “You will join them in death if you don’t pay.” State Department
Reports on the Use of Child Soldiers Victoria Garcia,
Center for Defense Information CDI, April 14, 2004 ACCESS IS RESTRICTED [accessed 18
February 2011] [scroll down] LIBYA - Despite the
Penal Code's prohibition on slavery, citizens have been implicated in the purchase
of Sudanese slaves, mainly southern Sudanese women and children, who were
captured by Sudanese government troops in the ongoing civil war in Sudan. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 6 June 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/libyanarabjamahiriya2003.html [accessed 18
February 2011] [43] The Committee is
concerned about reports of trafficking of children to the State party for the
purposes of prostitution and slavery.
The Committee is concerned that there is a lack of information and
awareness of the trafficking and prostitution of children. The
Protection Project - Libya The Paul H. www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/libya.doc [accessed 2009] www.protectionproject.org/country-reports/ [accessed 13
February 2019] A Human Rights
Report on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children FACTORS THAT
CONTRIBUTE TO THE TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - Libya’s location on the southern
Mediterranean coast makes it an ideal transit country for traffickers or
smugglers on their way to Europe. Libya’s long and unpoliced desert borders
allow people from African countries to be brought into the country undetected, and Libya’s
2,000-kilometer northern coastal border allows traffickers direct sea access
to Europe. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/libya/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 1 May 2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Forced labor,
sexual exploitation, abuse in detention facilities, and starvation are
widespread among migrants and refugees from sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle
East, and South Asia, many of whom are beholden to human traffickers. There
are an estimated 750,000 to 1 million migrants in the country. Libya lacks
comprehensive laws criminalizing human trafficking, and the authorities have
been either incapable of enforcing existing bans or complicit in trafficking
activity. Traffickers have taken advantage of civil unrest to establish
enterprises in which refugees and migrants are loaded into overcrowded boats
that are then abandoned in the Mediterranean Sea, where passengers hope to be
rescued and taken to Europe. The voyages often result in fatalities. A series of reports
by foreign media during 2017 exposed a growing practice in which detained
migrants are sold as slaves or rented out to perform forced labor. The
reports linked the trend to an increased backlog of migrants in the country
as European governments work with local authorities and militias to reduce
sea crossings. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61694.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Women were trafficked through the country from Africa to All
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