Six men have been arrested in Libya after shocking videos showing migrants being tortured with burning plastic emerged on social media.
Smuggling gangs subject migrants and refugees to horrific torture in order to pressure their families back home to send ransom money for their release or for the next stage of their journey across the Mediterranean by boat.
Footage of the migrants being physically abused is then sent to relatives by mobile phone.
It is believed that the video that has emerged was posted on social media by the relatives of migrants who were sickened by what they saw.
RADA
After the clips were shared on social media, Libyan special forces traced where the men were held and raided the place in Qaddahiya, a village south of Sirte, on Wednesday.
Six men, five Libyans and one Palestinian, were arrested and eight Sudanese captives were freed RADA, Libya’s Special Deterrence Forces, said in a statement which described the videos as "horrific".
Most of the abducted men were from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region and were in Libya seeking work before attempting the perilous sea journey to Europe, according to local media.
The latest videos come a month after CNN revealed that migrants were being sold in a slave market in Libya, which prompted a formal investigation in the country.
In scenes reminiscent of the 19th century, when the slave trade was rife, auctioneers advertised a group of West African migrants as “big strong boys for farm work.”
The auctioneers referred to the migrants in Arabic as “merchandise” and sold them off for as little as $400 each.
RADA
Libya has been mired in chaos ever since Muammar Gaddafi, the country’s longtime dictator, was ousted and killed in a Nato-backed uprising in 2011. It has two rival governments – a UN-backed administration in Tripoli, the capital, and a competing authority led by Khalifar Haftar, a military strongman who is based in the east.
Each is backed by different tribes and militias. In 2016, around 180,000 migrants and refugees crossed the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy.
But the numbers dropped by around a third last year to 119,000 due to EU support for Libya’s coast guard and deals done between Italy and Libyan authorities to stop smuggling gangs sending migrants across the sea.
Last year alone, 3,116 people died attempting the crossing, according to the International Organisation for Migration, including 2,833 from Libya.
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