SLAVERY

REAGARNSTUS K. MULI

DIDR-01-0083-2017

                                                                SLAVERY IN AFRICA   (LIBYA)

Slavery in Libya has a long history and a lasting impact on the Libyan culture. It is closely connected with the wider context of slavery in North Africa and Arab slave trade. Therefore, the current activities in Libya may be considered not a new thing. Many of the victims in Libya are people or migrants moving to Europe for greener pastures preferably using Libya as a route. As it is now, it is hard to tell why Libya, urguably it is because with the three rival governments presiding over anarchy in Libya and the real power lying in the hands of armed militia. Presence of this militias have made difficult and unsave to get into the country and dig into the issue

Many daring people have been going to see the tragic situation as though it were  more a problem for them  than for the migrants. What is being recorded from Libya is nothing short of a modern day slave trade, with migrants treated as commodities. It is as though nothing has changed in the 300 years since desert tribes used the very same routes to bring slaves to North Africa. Many of these victims are usually enticed with jobs or that they will be assisted to go to their European destination, only to be trafficked into the deserts with no idea when they might leave. Most  of these young men and women are cruelly beaten and held captive for months until their families pay ransom, women forced to take contraceptives to stop themselves becoming pregnant at the hands of smugglers.

While Libyans may rely on their own militias for protection, the migrants have nothing and no one to protect them. When they are intercepted by what authorities do exist in the country, they are taken to squalid, overcrowded warehouses-generously referred to as detention centres. Women and their babies bleed to death after giving birth due to insufficient food, medical facilities and aid workers to offer support. In the Libyan detention centres, migrants are locked up and left to rot. It is a humanitarian disaster with barely any humanitarian organization there to help. For tens of thousands of migrants in the country at the moment, they have no means of escape. Responsibility has been heightened towards Libya  because of the role British played in bringing down Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship with no strategy  for what was to come next. In the five and a half years since his death, lawlessness and anarchy have created the perfect conditions for people smuggling to thrive.

The EU leaders have tried to stop the tide of migrants travelling to Europe and have signed a deal with Libya. Far from helping people escape, this deal is aimed at keeping them there. It’s only one step away from forcibly returning them. Whatever your view on the migrant rights, forcing them back into the conditions we know they will experience in Libya is far from a humane solution. Unless the conditions for the enslaved migrants in that country drastically improve and until there is evidence of this.  I cannot really consider the current deal an acceptable solution to such a horrific situation.