By Maya Yang: On January 25, a series of grisly videos from Libya surfaced online that depicted several kidnapped Sudanese migrants tortured for ransom. In one video, at least five Sudanese men lay on the ground with fresh wounds on their backs, pleading with their families to “sell the house” and “transfer the money.” In another video, a man is filmed writhing on the ground as an off-camera man drips hot oil and fire on his back. Another masked man is seen pointing a gun at the victim. Summoned by Sudan’s Foreign Ministry, Libya’s charge d’affaires, Ali Murray al-Mahrouq expressed his sorrow and apologized for the fate of these men. Al-Mahrouq also stated that such criminal rings’ operations were beyond the Libyan government’s control. A few days later, the African Union launched an investigation into the case of these victims, according to Amira al-Fadil, the AU’s Commissioner of Social Affairs.
These gruesome incidents were not isolated. Hundreds of African refugees in Libya are trapped as slaves in one of today’s largest slave trade networks. Desperate to escape poverty, civil wars, and even genocide, over 150,000 migrants have sought the so-called ‘European Dream’ by attempting to transit the Mediterranean Sea via Libya. As such Africans seeking a brighter future embark on these perilous journeys, many essentially fall into an “extortion machine”. Libya, a failed state, has become the host of overrun detention centers along this route, filled with robberies, rape, torture, murder, as well as slave markets, where vulnerable migrants “become commodities to be bought, sold and discarded when they have no more value”. Such slave trade has proven to be a highly lucrative business from which splintered gangs, militias, and local tribes profit.
Libya’s factionalized state is not entirely to blame for the country’s slavery epidemic. European Union (EU) countries bear responsibility too. Accused by Amnesty International of knowing complicity in such exploitation, France and Italy have primarily responded either through lip-service or deliberate collusion with Libyan authorities and militias to stop illegal sea-crossings and keep migrants in detention centers in horrific conditions. Italy and other EU members have financially and logistically supported Libyan coastguards to limit the number of undocumented arrivals onto Italian shores. These coastguards, who operate with smugglers on a discrete signaling system through recognition of boat markings, often collude with militias and criminal gangs to whom they deliver the migrants. According to Amnesty International’s report on this crisis, “the lack of any judicial oversight of the detention process and the near total impunity with which officials operate has facilitated the institutionalization of torture and other ill-treatment in detention centers.”
Italy recently agreed to deploy additional troops to Libya, Tunisia, and Niger. Approximately 470 Italian troops, alongside already present French and American ones, will be deployed to Niger, as the country’s porous borders help facilitate illegal crossings among migrants. Italian Defense Minister, Roberta Pinotti stressed that “this is a training mission in response to a request from Niger, not a combat mission.” The training will work alongside Nigerien forces to combat human trafficking and fight terrorist cells such as Boko Haram. Moreover, Italy will be sending 60 soldiers to Tunisia, with naval deployments along Libyan coasts and additional ground soldiers in Libya, some of whom will be redeployed from Afghanistan and Iraq.
France has also promised to advocate for international sanctions against Libya if its own legal systems fail to bring the slave trade’s perpetrators to justice. Despite such efforts though, there are still several open points that need to be addressed.
As the Italians are sending additional military forces to quell illegal crossings, what is being done to fix the conditions that drive such mass fleeing in the first place? Moreover, which Libyan government will such sanctions target: The Tripoli-based and UN-backed Government of National Accord, which Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj heads, or its rival, the Tobruk-based House of Representatives? Furthermore, the effectiveness of implementing sanctions on the failed state of Libya remains questionable.
Recommendations
Much more is required for ending the slave trade in Libya. The burden is not only on governments, but also various tech companies and other non-state actors. For instance, the United Nations Development Program (UNPD) should establish a branch of its Security and Justice Sector in Libya and work alongside the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to reduce migrant exploitation through the strengthening of Libya’s judicial systems. Specifically, Libya should adopt what Johns Hopkins’ Seth Kaplan, regards as a hybrid legal system in which judicial oversight is shared between the state and local communities. While it may be difficult to create coherency of a hybrid judicial system among the many factions in the country, a consistent, comprehensive facilitation led by the UNDP would likely make such a possibility more realistic. One country where such hybridity takes effect is Ghana. By combining alternative dispute resolution methods (ADR), commonly considered to be more versatile, cost-effective, and localized, and traditional court systems, Ghana has created a program consisting of “court-connected ADR and… a separate Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justices,” operating in regional branches. In Libya, a creation of a hybrid court system under the guidance of the UNDP will help splintered courts unify under common aims and general regulations, while also being able to extend their reach and effectiveness into local communities. This in turn will allow the courts thus to more frequently address the many cases of migrant exploitation in consistent legal manners.
Tech companies such as Facebook and WhatsApp could play a helpful role by strengthening their online monitoring of potential traps set by smugglers, falsely promising safe and luxurious access to Europe in exchange for large sums of money. According to Leonard Doyle of the IOM, “The problem is the tech companies—Facebook—think it’s all about us telling them which Facebook pages are supported by criminals. First of all, that’s not our job, and we don’t have the resources. It’s their platform, not ours.”
Currently, Facebook does not have the technology to flag and shut down smuggling-related pages. Instead, it relies on individual users to report such pages to moderators, which will then result in several days for the page’s content to be examined before being shut down. By then, desperate migrants would have already fallen into the traps of these ads that literally state, “The boat’s leaving. 5 o’clock, this date, be here…” Companies such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram, all of which have widely used communication platforms across the region, should design technologies that are able to track keywords associated with smuggling ads. Moreover, they should develop some form of unremovable geotagging alongside such posts so online tracker communities are able to determine exactly where the smuggling is to take place and thus send out immediate online or text-based warnings to vulnerable migrants.
Ultimately, as the slave trade and overall migrant crisis in Libya continues, there needs to be increased efforts employed not only by state actors but also non-state actors to eradicate slavery from the Maghreb country. Only through such collective efforts that attempt to tackle the issue as extensively as possible can some sort of progress on this end be achieved.
Maya Yang is a contributor to Gulf State Analytics (@GulfStateAnalyt), a Washington, DC-based geopolitical risk consultancy.
