Apparent slave auction in Libya shocks the world

Two weeks ago, CNN reported about Modern Slavery in Libya, and released a video, supposedly filmed back in August, where it appears to show a man selling African migrants, according to the Huffington Post. The man describes the migrants, young men, and then starts the biding, and according to CNN, each man is eventually sold for 400 dollars.

The government in Libya already launched an investigation on this issue, and similar activities throughout the country.

The video caused an uproar in several cities

After watching this video, many people went to the streets of cities around the world, condemning these vile acts of modern slavery, with several of these demonstrations happening in front of Libyan embassies.

Various world leaders showed their outrage on this issue, among them, António Guterres, current United Nations Secretary-General, who previously worked with migrants and refugees in North Africa, said to reporters how he was aghast by these events and the video itself, adding that slavery is not acceptable by any means and that these actions are crimes against humanity.

He then asked for unity between the international community to fight the abuse and smuggling of migrants, by pushing forward legal procedures for migration and improve international cooperation in disrupting illegal activities by traffickers.

Despite the outrage, many believe action will be slow

The Human Rights Watch organization told CNN that, although they understand the outrage, actual action will probably take too long from the part of international community.

According to the Global Slavery Index, there are more than 45 million people across the world, victims of modern slavery. The situation in Libya isn’t new, since it became known in the last few years, one of the main entry points for migrants in Europe.

The situation led many of the migrants to become vulnerable to activities perpetrated by traffickers and smugglers since they are trying to escape situations of extreme poverty.

Smugglers and traffickers find little resistance to operate in these areas, increasingly resorting to methods of violence and torture to subdue migrants, and Libyan government fails to provide the means to tackle down this issue. Some institutions argue that the problem must be solved by bringing down their way of doing business, and that must be done by decriminalizing migration and increase the means to allow migration to be documented and legal, and with that, to be safer.