There Are Slave Markets In Libya. Here's What You Need To Know.

Just 285 miles from Malta and 345 from Italy, Libya's northern coast has been a jumping off point for migrants trying to reach Europe for decades. The situation began to worsen in 2011, when the then-government was toppled by rebel forces — igniting a period of chaos and unsteady rule.

Following the collapse of former Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi's regime, with the help of the US and other NATO countries, the country has yet to rebuild. There are several competing alliances claiming to be the legitimate government and extremists are finding plenty of space to set up camp. That same lawlessness has also made it an ideal staging ground for refugees and migrants from across the continent to try to reach Europe.

The European Union has essentially ceded control of trying to stop migrants from crossing to Libya, rather than doing it themselves. Italy has given Libya boats and euros to try to support their efforts — even as rights groups have warned that the Libyans don't have the training to actually carry out rescue operations at sea and often commit rights abuses in the process of trying to stop migrants.

“We cannot even guess the scale of the abuses inflicted on migrants in all these hidden places, untouched by the rule of law,” the UN's high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said in September. “The situation of migrants crossing Libya was appalling during Gaddafi’s era, but it has become diabolical since.”

Two migrants that the international body spoke with described being kidnapped while in transit. While in captivity, some migrants were tortured, others' families extorted for money, others still forced to perform labor.

“The situation is dire,” Mohammed Abdiker, IOM’s director of operation and emergencies, said at the time. “The more IOM engages inside Libya, the more we learn that it is a vale of tears for many migrants. Some reports are truly horrifying and the latest reports of ‘slave markets’ for migrants can be added to a long list of outrages.”

"[T]he human trafficking of sub-Saharan Africans by north African smugglers — at play in Tripoli’s migrant 'auctions' — is organized around a debt bonding and forced labor that become possible as a result of contaminated imaginary and a complex system of social debasement," wrote PhD candidate Haythem Guesmi at Africa is a Country.

But the government also attempted to sidestep the matter, adding that Libya “is going through difficult times which affected its own citizens as well. It is, therefore, not fair to assume responsibility for the consequences of this immigration, which everyone unanimously agreed that addressing this phenomenon exceeds the national capacities."

“People are rightfully outraged, but don’t hold your breath that anything real is going to happen,” Human Rights Watch researcher Hanan Salah told Reuters.