11-21-2017, 11:25 PM
*** 22-Nov-17 World View -- Italy is blamed for shocking increase in slave trade in Libya
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** CNN investigation finds thriving slave trade in Libya
****
![[Image: g171121b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g171121b.jpg)
A migrant looks out of a barred door at a detention center in Gharyan, Libya, Oct. 12, 2017. (Reuters)
While Americans have been riveted to the sexual harassment scandal,
Europeans and Africans have been riveted to a CNN video that reveals a
thriving slave trade in Libya.
Reporters carried concealed cameras to a slave auction just outside
Tripoli, the capital city of Libya. They witnessed a dozen men
auctioned off in the space of six or seven minutes.
That auctioneer says, "Does anybody need a digger? This is a digger, a
big strong man, he'll dig. What am I bid, what am I bid?"
The bidding goes on, and the man is auctioned off for $400-1000.
Within minutes, the man is handed over to his new "master."
The men are migrants who had come from countries like Niger, Chad,
Mali and Algeria, and paid sometimes thousands of dollars to human
traffickers to take them to Libya. Once in Libya, they would have to
pay another human trafficker to put them onto a dangerously
overcrowded boat, where they hope to reach Italy. But if they run out
of money in Libya, then they can be imprisoned in detention camps, or
sold as slaves.
The CNN video and revelations about the slave trade in Libya resulted
in sometimes violent protests in Paris, when over a thousand
protestors demonstrated outside Libya's embassy in Paris, carrying
banners saying, "No to slavery in Libya." The protestors threw stones
at the police tried to break into the embassy, and the police fired
tear gas.
The demonstration was called by the Collectif contre l’esclavage et
les camps de concentration en Libye (CECCL – the Collective against
Slavery and Concentration Camps in Libya), set up in Paris after the
CNN video was broadcast.
On Tuesday, the UN Security Council approved a resolution urging
tougher action to crack down on human trafficking and modern slavery
worldwide. CNN (14-Nov) and Reuters and Libya Herald and Africa News and AP
****
**** Italy defends its role in Libya's slave trade
****
More than 600,000 people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East have
arrived in Italy since 2014, and a record 180,000 refugees crossed the
Mediterranean from Libya to Italy in 2016, but instead of setting a
new record in 2017, the number of refugees has fallen substantially,
thanks to deals that Italy's government made with Libya's tribes,
warlords, and coast guard.
Under the deals, Italy pays money to tribal militias and officials to
prevent refugees from entering Libya or, once there, to detain them
and prevent them from proceeding further on their trip to Europe.
These deals have been heavily condemned by human rights organizations
as inhumane, because it leaves the refugees vulnerable to abuse, and
the slave auctions are being pointed to as evidence not only of abuse,
but of a return to a slave trade that was supposedly a remnant of the
past.
However, the fact still remains that the policy, however cruel and
inhumane, has led to a sharp drop in migrants reaching Italy, which is
the outcome that Italian officials were seeking, especially after
other EU countries refused to accept any of the refugees themselves.
"The suffering of migrants detained in Libya is an outrage to the
conscience of humanity," according to the UN. However, Italy's
interior minister Marco Minniti defended the policy:
<QUOTE>"The alternative cannot be to resign ourselves to the
impossibility of managing migratory flows and hand human
traffickers the keys to European democracies.
[The human rights issue] is, was and will be a question we will
not relinquish, but we know that condemning (abuses) is not
enough, we must act."<END QUOTE>
Minniti didn't specify any details, but he may be referring to a
"revolutionary" proposal put forth by Italy's foreign minister
Angelino Alfano two months ago. Under the plan, refugees in Libya
would be evaluated, and 50,000 of the most vulnerable would be
resettled to other countries. This plan sounds like wishful thinking,
since a quote plan adopted by the European Union in 2014 has been a
complete failure, because many EU countries refused to accept refugees
for resettlement. AFP (15-Nov) and AFP (29-Sep)
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, CNN, Libya, Niger, Chad, Mali, Algeria, France,
Collectif contre l’esclavage et les camps de concentration en Libye, CECCL,
Collective against Slavery and Concentration Camps in Libya,
Italy, Marco Minniti, Angelino Alfano
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- CNN investigation finds thriving slave trade in Libya
- Italy defends its role in Libya's slave trade
****
**** CNN investigation finds thriving slave trade in Libya
****
A migrant looks out of a barred door at a detention center in Gharyan, Libya, Oct. 12, 2017. (Reuters)
While Americans have been riveted to the sexual harassment scandal,
Europeans and Africans have been riveted to a CNN video that reveals a
thriving slave trade in Libya.
Reporters carried concealed cameras to a slave auction just outside
Tripoli, the capital city of Libya. They witnessed a dozen men
auctioned off in the space of six or seven minutes.
That auctioneer says, "Does anybody need a digger? This is a digger, a
big strong man, he'll dig. What am I bid, what am I bid?"
The bidding goes on, and the man is auctioned off for $400-1000.
Within minutes, the man is handed over to his new "master."
The men are migrants who had come from countries like Niger, Chad,
Mali and Algeria, and paid sometimes thousands of dollars to human
traffickers to take them to Libya. Once in Libya, they would have to
pay another human trafficker to put them onto a dangerously
overcrowded boat, where they hope to reach Italy. But if they run out
of money in Libya, then they can be imprisoned in detention camps, or
sold as slaves.
The CNN video and revelations about the slave trade in Libya resulted
in sometimes violent protests in Paris, when over a thousand
protestors demonstrated outside Libya's embassy in Paris, carrying
banners saying, "No to slavery in Libya." The protestors threw stones
at the police tried to break into the embassy, and the police fired
tear gas.
The demonstration was called by the Collectif contre l’esclavage et
les camps de concentration en Libye (CECCL – the Collective against
Slavery and Concentration Camps in Libya), set up in Paris after the
CNN video was broadcast.
On Tuesday, the UN Security Council approved a resolution urging
tougher action to crack down on human trafficking and modern slavery
worldwide. CNN (14-Nov) and Reuters and Libya Herald and Africa News and AP
****
**** Italy defends its role in Libya's slave trade
****
More than 600,000 people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East have
arrived in Italy since 2014, and a record 180,000 refugees crossed the
Mediterranean from Libya to Italy in 2016, but instead of setting a
new record in 2017, the number of refugees has fallen substantially,
thanks to deals that Italy's government made with Libya's tribes,
warlords, and coast guard.
Under the deals, Italy pays money to tribal militias and officials to
prevent refugees from entering Libya or, once there, to detain them
and prevent them from proceeding further on their trip to Europe.
These deals have been heavily condemned by human rights organizations
as inhumane, because it leaves the refugees vulnerable to abuse, and
the slave auctions are being pointed to as evidence not only of abuse,
but of a return to a slave trade that was supposedly a remnant of the
past.
However, the fact still remains that the policy, however cruel and
inhumane, has led to a sharp drop in migrants reaching Italy, which is
the outcome that Italian officials were seeking, especially after
other EU countries refused to accept any of the refugees themselves.
"The suffering of migrants detained in Libya is an outrage to the
conscience of humanity," according to the UN. However, Italy's
interior minister Marco Minniti defended the policy:
<QUOTE>"The alternative cannot be to resign ourselves to the
impossibility of managing migratory flows and hand human
traffickers the keys to European democracies.
[The human rights issue] is, was and will be a question we will
not relinquish, but we know that condemning (abuses) is not
enough, we must act."<END QUOTE>
Minniti didn't specify any details, but he may be referring to a
"revolutionary" proposal put forth by Italy's foreign minister
Angelino Alfano two months ago. Under the plan, refugees in Libya
would be evaluated, and 50,000 of the most vulnerable would be
resettled to other countries. This plan sounds like wishful thinking,
since a quote plan adopted by the European Union in 2014 has been a
complete failure, because many EU countries refused to accept refugees
for resettlement. AFP (15-Nov) and AFP (29-Sep)
Related Articles
- Italy's deals with Libya's warlords substantially reduce flow of refugees (19-Oct-2017)
- EU countries refuse to help Italy deal with massive refugee crisis (16-Jul-2017)
- Italy begs for help after 12,000 migrants arrive in four days (30-Jun-2017)
- Italy prepares for possible Mediterranean refugee crisis this summer (05-May-2017)
- EU migrant crisis moves to Italy as Austria begins closing border (13-Apr-2016)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, CNN, Libya, Niger, Chad, Mali, Algeria, France,
Collectif contre l’esclavage et les camps de concentration en Libye, CECCL,
Collective against Slavery and Concentration Camps in Libya,
Italy, Marco Minniti, Angelino Alfano
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
