People being sold for $800: Life in Libya

in #life7 years ago

No, the title isn't a lie. This really is happening in Libya.
The auctioneer says: 800, 900, 1000, 1100...sold! And just like that a man was sold for 1100 Libyan dinars, which is the same as $800.
It's not an auction for a car, a house, a boat or some furniture...it is for real people!
A man from Nigeria has been offered up for sale for ''farm work''.

The auctioneer continues: ''Who needs a digger? This strong man will digg for you.'' Buyers fast raise their hands, while the price goes up fast...550, 600, 650, 700, 750...sold! It is all over very fast, just in few minutes. And the man is sold to his new ''master''.

There are many slave auctions in Libya, there are about 9 locations, but apparently there are many more.
Each year thousands of refugees travel in small boats across Libya's border. They are all in hope for a better life for them and their families in Europe.
Most of them sell everything they have, just so they can afford the journey.

A recent clampdown has changed all of this, there are fewer boats that refugees could travel with. This way, the smugglers become the ''masters'' of the refugees and migrants (they become slaves).

Organized gangs smuggle over 100 people in boats, and not all of those people make it. They don't really care about the people, as long as they get paid money. Slave marketing is real.
These auctions take place in normal towns, with ordinary people living there. People eat lunch with their families, the children play on the streets and play with dogs and cats, people go shopping, basically just normally living their lives.

But what happens at the slave auctions in truly horrible. It's like we don't live in the 21'st century.

The story of a young man named Victory will leave you speechles. He was sold at a slave auction. The 21 year old man spent abut 1 year and 4 months trying to reach Europe. He only made it to Libya, where he was prisoned and was living in horrible conditions, with almost no food and abused by captors. He was sold multiple times, and the captors demanded a lot of money if they ever wanted to see him again.
He is currently in a detention center, and he is waiting to go back to Nigeria.
While a lot of his friends did made it to Europe, his wish did not come true, and he has to return home. But he says even though he is happy to be alive, he will not give up on his dream.

What do you think, will slavery ever end? How can we help to end this, what can we as individuls do?