Trafficking, Survival, And The Cost Of Silence Inside Libya’s Migrant Cages

In January 2026, Libyan authorities opened two gates and found what they called hell. Underground in Kufra, 221 migrants including a one-month-old baby. In Ajdabiya, 195 survivors and 21 bodies buried nearby. The IOM called it “appalling.” The UN called it “systematic.” The men in the flying videos on social media are not actors. They are Nigerians, Eritreans, Sudanese, and others caught in a machine that turns desperation into cash. This is not 2017. It is 2026. And the business of selling human beings has not stopped. It has become normal, ODIMEGWU ONWUMERE writes

The phone video is shaky. A room with bare concrete. Men sit on the floor, packed like sacks of rice. Some stare straight into the lens. Others keep their eyes down. A voice off camera, in Arabic, tells them to move. The gate slides. Hands reach through the bars.

This clip was shared in April 2026 with the caption: "Slave Trade in Libya 2026." It went viral in WhatsApp groups from Port Harcourt to Accra in hours. Laughing emojis. Angry voice notes. "How can this still be happening?"

The answer, according to the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration, is that it never stopped. It only changed its address.

On 17 February 2026, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, released a report covering January 2024 to December 2025. The title was blunt. Migrants and refugees in Libya subjected to ‘systematic’ abuse. The findings were worse than blunt. The report described “an exploitative model preying on migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees in situations of heightened vulnerability,” and called it “a brutal and normalised reality” that has become “business as usual in Libya”.

This is the story of that business. Of who pays, who profits, and who is still trying to shut it down. Most of the men in the video left home for the same reason. Work. School fees. A chance. Nigeria’s Minister of Education said in June 2026 that three out of every four Nigerian children cannot read and understand an age-appropriate text by age 10. The World Bank says 70% of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries cannot read a simple sentence. When the future at home looks like a closed door, the desert looks like a road.

They travel through Niger, through the Sahara, and into Libya. That is where the road ends and the market begins. The UN interviewed nearly 100 migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees from 16 countries for its 2026 report. The stories are the same. Abduction. Arbitrary detention. Extreme abuse.

“I wish I died. It was a journey of hell,” said one Eritrean woman detained for six weeks at a trafficking house in Tobruk. She told investigators she was raped repeatedly by multiple men and watched girls as young as 14 being abused. She was released only after her family paid a ransom.

Another woman said traffickers mutilated and raped her and a friend, who later died from her injuries. Others described hangars where armed men raped, tortured and beat detainees in front of others.

This is not random violence. The UN says migrants are rounded up by criminal networks, often with ties to Libyan authorities, and transferred to detention facilities without due process. The world got a fresh look on 19 January 2026.

In Ajdabiya, eastern Libya, security forces closed an illegal detention site. They released 195 migrants and found 21 bodies in a nearby burial site. Investigations said the victims had been held in captivity and tortured to force their families to pay ransom.

Days later in Kufra, they found something else. An underground detention site, three metres below ground. Inside: 221 migrants and refugees, including women and children. One was a one-month-old baby. At least ten were taken to hospital for urgent treatment after being held in “grossly inhumane conditions”.

IOM’s Chief of Mission in Libya, Nicoletta Giordano, did not mince words. “These shocking cases highlight the severe risks faced by migrants who fall prey to criminal networks operating along migration routes,” she said. She added that the abuses in Ajdabiya and Kufra “underscore the urgent need to strengthen protection mechanisms, combat trafficking and smuggling, and support accountability processes for perpetrators”.

IOM teams moved in to give medical screenings and warm clothes. But the teams can only reach those who are found. As of 31 December 2025, IOM and UNHCR recorded 4,876 people in official DCIM detention centers across Libya. The real number is higher.

The list is long. Tajoura: 1,200. Qanfouda: 1,635. Tobruk: 409. Al-Kufra: 335. In these centers, the UN says migrants, including children, have been arbitrarily held inhumane conditions rife with torture, forced labor, and extortion.

Women in Abu Salim reported sexual harassment and said they watched other women being taken away and never returned, in February 2025.

Outside the official centers are the “unofficial and illegal” facilities. Places with names like al-Mabani and the Tobacco Factory. No one counts those. Between July 2024 and June 2025, there were waves of forced expulsions. At least 463 people were deported to Niger in July 2024. More than 1,400 more between January and June 2025. Most were Nigerians, including women and children, many in poor health.

At the Libya-Tunisia border, between June 2023 and December 2025, Libyan authorities intercepted about 13,783 migrants. Many were left without water, food, or medical care. The UN report lists it like an inventory. Slavery. Forced labor. Forced prostitution. Extortion. The confiscation and re-sale of belongings and identity documents.

At sea, interceptions by Libyan actors are violent. Excessive force. Reckless maneuvers. Those captured are brought back to Libya and the cycle starts again.

IOM and UNHCR have said publicly that Libya cannot be considered a safe place for disembarkation. Yet in June, a ship called “Vos Triton” rescued over 270 people in international waters and handed them to the Libyan Coast Guard. They were taken to Tripoli and into detention.

The Libyan Coast Guard has returned more than 13,000 people to Libya this year alone. That already passed the total for all of 2020. Suki Nagra, the UN Human Rights Representative to Libya, said after disembarkation people are “routinely held in detention centres that are breeding grounds for human rights violations and abuses”.

Why It Persists

Libya has been fractured since 2011. Armed groups, smugglers, and traffickers operate with little consequence. The UN notes that some state employees and local officials have participated in smuggling and trafficking.

In 2025, Decision 227 abolished the department responsible for guarding prisons and transporting detainees, without saying who would take over. That left a vacuum.

Europe’s policy has also played a role. By funding and training the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept boats, European states have effectively outsourced border control. MSF and others have warned for years that returning people to Libya violates maritime law because Libya is not a “place of safety”.

The result is a system where detention is the default. IOM calls it “voluntary return,” but notes the voluntary nature is questionable because people have no other way out of detention.

The Faces We Don’t See

The video does not show names. But the reports do.

There was the one-month-old baby in Kufra. There were the 21 bodies in Ajdabiya. There were the Nigerian women and children deported to the desert in 2025.

Behind each is a family. In Rivers State, in Edo, in Kano. Parents who sold land to pay for the trip. Siblings who wait for a WhatsApp call.

The IOM has helped more than 15,000 people return home since November through “voluntary” programs. UNHCR has evacuated just over 1,000 of the most vulnerable. It is not enough.

What Comes Next

The UN’s recommendations are clear and old. Release the most vulnerable. End arbitrary detention. Reduce the number of centers. Separate women and men. Stop torture. Decriminalize irregular migration and adopt an asylum law.

Giordano said Libya needs stronger protection systems and accountability. The UN says states must coordinate so merchant vessels are not forced to return people to unsafe places.

But recommendations are paper. The gates are metal.

In Port Harcourt, a young man watches the viral video and types “😡😡”. In Tripoli, a guard locks another gate. In Geneva, a diplomat reads another report. The business continues because demand and supply meet in the desert. Demand for a better life. Supply of a system that sells it.

•Onwumere is Chairman, Advocacy Network on Religious and Cultural Coexistence (ANORACC)