If anyone were still wondering what could drive tens of thousands of people, every year, to risk their own lives and those of their loved ones, travelling on boats across the Mediterranean in an attempt to reach the southern shores of Europe, one of the (many) answers is contained in a report published on 11 April by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Migrants intercepted by criminal gangs in Libya

The document focuses its attention on one of the countries through which the largest number of migrants transit: Libya, from whose shores, in the last three years alone, as many as 150,000 people have set off for the Old Continent. A large part of Libyan territory has, for some years now, been outside the control of institutions, in the hands of local mafias and gangs, as well as extremist groups. Against this backdrop of chaos, the humanitarian organisation has denounced the establishment of a genuine "slave market". Men and women are kidnapped by unscrupulous individuals and sold to be used respectively as forced labourers and as prostitutes.

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Numerous migrants arriving from the western states of the continent report having been bought and exchanged in garages and car parks in the city of Sabha, in southern Libya. Their price? On average, between 200 and 300 dollars (approximately 190–280 euros). Othman Belbeisi, the IOM's director in the African country, explained that "migrants are being sold as if they were a commodity. Human trafficking is becoming increasingly common within the networks of people smugglers, who are by now particularly powerful in Libya."

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The victims, predominantly from Nigeria, Senegal and Gambia, are captured while making the long journey towards the northern coast. Those who "purchase" them use them mainly as day labourers in the construction and agricultural sectors. Women, on the other hand, "are not infrequently raped and forced into prostitution," Belbeisi continued.

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IOM: "They told us about cemeteries in the desert"

"What we know is that migrants who fall into the hands of armed groups are also starved and in some cases killed," added Mohammed Abdiker, a senior official of the NGO. In many cases the criminals indeed demand payments from those who end up in their hands: some migrants call their families, begging them to send money. But those who cannot, or do not have enough to offer, are beaten and starved. Or simply killed without mercy: "They told us about cemeteries in the desert," the IOM reported.