THE TRAVELS OF HELL: LIBYA
How many times have you expressed the idea of changing the country? Some to study, some to seek new experiences, and some simply to improve your living conditions.
Before you make the decision to leave, you will imagine how you might live, and all the new opportunities you might encounter along the way.
If your desire persists, you will start looking for all the documentation you need, and most likely you will have all the papers you need to be able to leave.
Well, know that you are part of a small minority in the world, because you should know that deciding to change a country, and being able to do so, is to all intents and purposes a privilege.
In this article, we are going to talk about migration routes, the route that people from African countries are forced to take to get to Europe.
They do this by going through hell, a hell called LIBYA.
Before starting to tell the story of the journey itself, it is only right to introduce, albeit briefly, the socio-political situation in Libya.
Libya has always been one of the favourite places to reach European shores.
When Gaddafi ruled this country, human trafficking was in the hands of ‘a few families’.
In fact, the dictator used the threat of reopening the migration routes whenever he wanted.
European countries were not at all indifferent to these claims.
A striking case was in 2009, when the Italian government paid $5 billion in ‘compensation to Libya for its colonial past’.
To this day it can be said with certainty that that money was paid out to show Gaddafi that Italy was not a friendly country.
After the dictator’s death, human trafficking increased exponentially, because it became everyone’s business.
The human trafficking market to date is around $150 billion a year, according to The Reuters Against Transnational Organisational Crime in 2015 estimated that in Libya alone this market yielded a figure like $323 million a year.
Now we can start talking about the journey to hell.
We start with two social media that you know very well, facebook and instagram. These are the main places where migrants and traffickers meet for the very first time. In some cases the two come into contact by word of mouth, but these things are not so common.
The traffickers create fictitious travel ads to fool the social network’s algorithm, and the migrants will contact it by message to find out information about the trip and the cost.
The cost of such a trip ranges from 2000 to 3500€ (not counting the costs of various bribes to reside in detention centres located on the Libyan coast).
The people who make the announcements are called connection men and it is with them that it all begins.
The second phase is where the migrant pays the sum needed to leave.
Of this sum one third will be retained by the connection man that money will be used to organise the journey to Libya and to bribe the Libyan guards.
The other two thirds are retained by a new figure the banker, who, if and only if the migrant reaches Europe safe and sound, will give the two thirds of the money back to the connection man.
In the third phase, another figure is added, the Passeur: this figure has the task of taking the migrants as far as Libya, the routes of which are divided into two groups, the East African and the West African.
The East African routes
1)The first passes through Khartoum (Somalia) to Cufra (Libya), although this city is not popular with traffickers because there are tensions between two tribes, the Zuaia and the Tebu, and that is why I decide to continue on to Egypt.
2) The second possibility is to pass through Chad, but this route is not much used because there are two main obstacles, the Fezzan desert and the Tibetan massif.
The Western routes:
1)through the Niger via the town of Tommo. From the Niger it is very easy to enter Libya because it is part of ECOWAS( economic community of West African states)
2)from Mali to Algeria, because Malians have free access to Algeria, which is why they leave from Gao (north Mali) to get as far as Tamanrasset (main hub of the migrant trade from Algeria) and then leave again to get to Gat (Libya)
These routes are made in a pickup truck that many times contains more than 30 people, and it is a very dangerous journey that leads to the death of many people.
Stage four migrants arrive in Libya, mainly in Sheb.
They are kept in the houses of the smugglers, it should be specified, that very often the smugglers are not always physically present on Libyan territory, in fact they delegate the Tchanga (‘traders’) to run all operations in their absence.
During their stay, migrants have to pay 20 euros per day for food and accommodation.
The stay in these places can last up to months, because the barges have to leave full, and many times the recruitment process can take a long time.
During their stay in these homes, migrants are subjected to torture, human rights violations and not to mention the hygienic conditions, which are poor to say the least.
Because of the very long waiting periods many people are not able to meet all the expenses, they are sold to the locals, if they are male they have to do forced labour, if they are female they are forced into prostitution, and many others are killed for the sale of human organs on the black market (a kidney can cost 200,000 dollars, The Telegraph).
For those who are able to pay, they pass the fifth and final stage where the barges leave.
Traffickers to bring the immigrants to the required country leave from three main ports Zania, Sabrata and Zauia.
This journey is not an easy one because people are crammed like sardines into an unsafe boat, without food and water for days. Many people die during this journey. Just think that during 2016 more than 5 thousand people lost their lives .
Human trafficking helps Libya’s black economy. thanks also to European countries, which collaborate with the Libyan government through the various agreements.
The indifference on the part of most European countries is no longer tolerated, because there are many accounts of the corrupt Libyan government, and the violation of human rights that take place there.
To be indifferent on this subject is to contribute to this great human trafficking machine.
