Video gives new prominence to charges of Libyan slave trade

A video appearing to show men auctioned as slaves in Tripoli, Libya has put a long history of abuses against refugees and migrants there on the international agenda, the United Nations refugee chief said on Thursday.

Grainy footage broadcast by CNN earlier this month appeared to show an auction of men offered as labourers to Libyan buyers for $400, prompting outrage and anger in Europe and Africa.

But migrants who reach Europe by sea have been telling stories of being kidnapped, imprisoned and forced to work for no pay for years, Reuters reports.

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“Unfortunately, the horrifying abuses which that video made evident, made obvious to the whole world, are not new,” Filippo Grandi told Reuters in Rome. “The merit of that video is that it has now put the issue on the international agenda.”

Some African countries recalled their ambassadors after the video was broadcast, and the U.N. Security Council held a special session to discuss the issue after French President Emmanuel Macron railed against “crimes against humanity” in Libya.

Partly in response to the video, European and African leaders meeting in Abidjan on Thursday agreed to a plan to cooperate to fight smuggling and seek to ease a human rights disaster in Libya.