Human trafficker tells Al Jazeera that refugees are being bought and sold in Libyan 'slave markets'. Hundreds of African refugees are being bought and sold in "slave markets" across Libya every week, a human trafficker has told Al Jazeera, with many of them held for ransom or forced into prostitution and sexual exploitation to pay their captors and smugglers.
A morgue in the southern city of Sabha - an entry point for many refugees coming from Africa - is overflowing with corpses, with faulty refrigerator making the situation worse, according to a Libyan health official.
The official in Sabha, km south of the capital Tripoli, described horrendous scenes of bodies dumped in threes, fives or more at the gates of the Sebha health facility by smugglers. The refugees who died are never identified and many ended being buried without names or proper graves, he said. The health official, who declined to give his name for security reasons, said Sabha's morgue has only one dysfunctional refrigerator that can hold bodies for up to three days but end up keeping them for months and on.
The refugees and migrants - most of them from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zambia, Senegal, Gambia and Sudan - are smuggled into Libya by a network of criminal gangs on the promise of reaching Europe's shores. Libya is the main gateway for people attempting to reach Europe by sea, with more than , people making the deadly crossing in each of the past three years. The International Organization for Migration IOM said on Tuesday that it had interviewed migrants from west African countries who recounted being traded in garages and car parks in Sabha.
The IOM said it had spoken to one Senegalese migrant, who was held in a private house in Sabha along with some others. They were beaten up and forced to call their families to arrange money for their release. The unnamed migrant was then bought by another Libyan, who set a new price for his release. Some of those who cannot pay their captors are reportedly killed or left to starve to death, the IOM said. When migrants die or are released, others are purchased to replace them.
