Libya Slave Trade – Responding to the massive calls for government intervention in the slavery crisis in Libya, Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that no Ghanaian has been involved in the slave trade reported in Libya.
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According to the Ministry, all Ghanaians being detained in the Northern African country are being held on illegal immigration charges and not being traded as slaves as earlier reported by the media.
Pictures of slave markets and gross abuse of black Africans are awash on social media after CNN uncovered the fledging human trade in the North African country.
The Footage of men being auctioned off as slaves in Libya has led to a media outrage and have raised calls on the international community to fight relentlessly to end the menace.
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Libya’s UN-backed government says it is investigating allegations that hundreds of African refugees and migrants passing through Libya are being bought and sold in modern-day slave markets.
Libya is the main gateway for people attempting to reach Europe by sea, with more than 150,000 people making the crossing in each of the past three years.
Thousands of West African migrants seeking a better life often risk everything to get to Libya’s coast and then across the Mediterranean into Europe.
Although this has been considered the most dangerous route to the other side, Libya’s coasts receive tens of thousands of migrants from across Africa.
The government of Ghana has said that Ghanaians in Libya are not victims of the slavery as reported by the media.
“The 168 Ghanaians in Libya were arrested on illegal immigration charges,” the deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Habib Mohammed said on Wednesday, November 29.
The Foreign Affairs ministry has also said it is working to ensure the return of the 168 Ghanaians who have been detained in Libya.
The Ministry said it was working together with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), to get the identified Ghanaians back into the country via a chartered flight from Tripoli.
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