From illegal immigration to slavery: The tragedy of migrant children in Libya

Illegal immigration is one of the problems that have plagued successive governments in Libya since the collapse of the regime of former President Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

This crisis casts a shadow over the neighboring countries, as they were also affected by this phenomenon that crossed the Libyan sea and land borders towards the European continent. 

The matter gets worse if these immigrants are children under 17 years old who have slipped into the country without their parents, which raises fears that they will be subjected to sexual and occupational exploitation in an unstable country.

Last Tuesday, the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency in the eastern region of Libya thwarted a sea boat that was heading from Libyan territorial waters towards Italy carrying minor immigrant children without identification papers. It was revealed that their nationalities vary between Egyptians and Syrians.

The agency's branch in the city of Shahat (eastern Libya) confirmed on its official Facebook page that “the security services in the city of Tobruk managed last Tuesday to thwart the smuggling of more than 500 immigrants, including a large number of minor children.” The gangs behind this operation have not been announced.

The same source published a video clip in September showing that the security services found 287 Egyptian immigrants, including more than 70 children. They were collected in warehouses belonging to human traffickers until it was time to smuggle them to the Italian coasts, according to information that came from some of them in the video clip on the official page of the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency in Shahat.

Role of Parents

Migrant children confirmed to Libya 24 agency in Tobruk that they had boarded the death boats with the knowledge of their families. Among them is 14-year-old Egyptian child KerolosShenouda, who said that “his family paid for the travel costs from Egypt to Libya.”

He added that “his father was the one who brought him to the person responsible for the smuggling operation that took place across the joint land borders between the two countries.”

ZiadAdawy, another Egyptian, no more than 12 years old, explained that “the cost of his arrival from Egypt’sAssiut to Libya, which was supposed to continue towards the Italian territories by sea, is 120,000 Egyptian pounds ($4,800).”

Another migrant child added that “they had to travel 50 kilometers on foot without food or water, and moved between six warehouses that the human smuggling mafia exploited to detain them until they were smuggled across the Libyan sea coast towards Italy.”

He confirmed that they were “beaten and humiliated during their detention,” according to what he said directly from the port of Tobruk.

The number is on the rise

Commenting on the increase in child migration, Tariq Lamloum, an activist in the field of illegal immigration and head of the Baladi Institute for Human Rights, told Jusoor Post that “this phenomenon witnessed an increase during the period between 2021 and 2022 due to Syrian children.”

“These Syrian children enter through BeninaInternational Airport in eastern Libya, in coordination with smugglers from Damascus, who arranged for their flights from Syria to Benghazi via the Syrian Cham Wings Airlines, which is still operating flights to eastern Libya,” he added.

Lamloum continued, “The flow of entry of Egyptian minor children from the Egyptian-Libyan border is still continuing, although their stay does not last long in Libya, as they are deported by land within days to their country in the event that their places of detention are discovered by the Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency.”

Sexual exploitation

Regarding the violations against unaccompanied migrant children, the head of the Beladi Institute for Human Rights said, “Their crisis begins when they enter the Libyan desert.”

Lamloum added that “the majority of children are subjected to exploitation and abuse in detention warehouses, which are spread especially in the city of Sabha in the south of the country, as well as in the city of Kufra, and the farms of the Tazirbu region in the southeast, in which minor girls are frequently detained.”

“The suffering of these children begins with the detention of their identity papers, if any, and then their employment as domestic workers without any legal guarantees, in return for the human smuggling mafia benefiting from their salaries,” he continued.

Lamloum pointed out that “the sexual exploitation of minor children (girls or boys) is widespread even within the centers affiliated with the Libyan governments.”

“In 2018, Beladimonitored the sexual exploitation of four minor girls from different African countries working in an official detention center affiliated with the Libyan state, where they were forced to have sex for long periods in exchange for their release later,” he added.

Trafficking in human organs

Commenting on the possibility of unaccompanied migrant children being exposed to crimes of trafficking in human organs, Lamloum explained that “until now, there are no indications or evidence of the existence of trafficking in human organs in Libya, despite the existence of more egregious crimes such as the mass killing of migrants with weapons or burning.”

He stressed that “what migrant children are most exposed to is sexual exploitation, as we have monitored dozens of cases of rape and sexual harassment in government asylum centers. Despite this, no security investigation has been opened in the matter, nor has any psychological support been provided to them.”

Sale of migrant children

Libyan lawyer and human rights activist Khaled Al-Qawafi told Jusoor Post that the city of Derna suffers in silence.

He pointed out that “the city's police chief was contacted, but their demands did not find a way to meet them, foremost of which was the allocation of a police headquarters or a place to house immigrants in Derna or cars to carry out raids on human smuggling dens that are based in the city.”

“In the past period, we have monitored more than 150 illegal immigrants, some of them carrying serious diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS, including nearly 70 unaccompanied immigrant children under the age of 17,” he added.

“These children stayed for nearly four days on the sidewalk in the open without eating because the mayor of Derna refused to provide meals for these minor children and the rest of the irregular migrants,” he continued.

Al-Qawafi added that he witnessed multiples times“immigrants selling children sold by the human smuggling mafia to blacksmithing workshops or farms as slaves,” although he was unable to intervene to protect them “due to the lack of police assistance or the necessary logistical equipment such as raid cars, a workplace, shelter, and financial budget.”

He pointed out that he was “threatened more than once by these gangs, who began selling migrant children in front of everyone.”