Sub-Saharan Migrants are Being Sold as Slaves in Libya

Prices start from $400 per person.

Sub-Saharan Migrants are Being Sold as Slaves in Libya

Libyan authorities are investigating the slave auctions that were revealed in a CNN report last week.


CNN reported that people are sold according to their skillsets, and that prices start from $400 per person.

Most of these people are illegal migrants who are fleeing their countries in search of better lives in Europe. They pour into Libya's borders in thousands.

But Libya has recently increased security on its borders, and that leaves the smugglers with a lot of people they don't know what to do with. Which is what has led to the auctions.

Africans and people from all around the world have taken to Twitter to voice their concerns and disgust about these modern day slave auctions that are ironically taking place in Africa, and inflicted by other Africans.

The New York Times reports that hundreds of protesters, mostly young black people, demonstrated in front of the Libyan Embassy in central Paris on Saturday. Some, The Times reports, were carrying a sign that said, "Put an end to the slavery and concentration camps in Libya," and chanting, "Free our brothers!"

You can read more about this on BBC, CNN and the New York Times.

​Photo illustration by Kaushik Kalidindi, Okayplayer.
Poetry

The 10 Best African Poems of All Time

These are the lines that have woken imaginations and stirred souls across the continent and beyond.

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office on January 20, 2025, in Washington, DC. Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States.
News

Anxious and Uncertain, How Trump’s Policies are Affecting Africans at Home and Abroad

From aggressive immigration policies to freezing crucial global aid, Africans on the continent and in the U.S. are also feeling the effects of President Trump’s, often unconstitutional, executive orders.