And the migrant carnage goes on. At least 100 people have drowned off the coast in a single tragedy and there is mounting evidence that this was in fact mass murder by Libyan people smugglers.
Remains of a large grey inflatable raft were found this week on rocks on beaches near the town of Zawia on which the bodies of the sub-Saharan migrants were being washed up and collected by Red Crescent volunteers. Such rafts have been packed by greedy people-smugglers with up to 200 people. Barely buoyant with such a heavy load of fearful humanity, these inflatables are driven by a single outboard engine that barely has the power to move the craft along.
There is now a strong suspicion that the outboard was the reason these unfortunates became the latest victims of the rapacious smugglers. On at least two previous occasions, Libyan vessels, one apparently a coastguard cutter, have intercepted migrant inflatables and taken back the engine. One such incident was filmed from the rescue vessel of the charity that had been picking up the migrants. The Libyan navy has denied that the vessel had anything to do with them. The EU is investigating reports that there has been collusion between a rescue charity and the smugglers. A people smuggler sailed out a heavily laden craft to an arranged point, handed over his migrants and then motored back to the shore with a vessel and engine that could be used again.
The remains of the raft found near Zawia are said to show evidence that it had been punctured deliberately from above. The suspicion is that either the migrants aboard the vessel contested the repossession of their engine or those who took it away from them decided they might as well murder them anyway.
Whatever the truth, this disaster would not have happened had it not been for Libyan people traffickers. These criminals operate with impunity along the country’s western coast where the militias led by local warlords are in complete control. The UN-backed government led by Faiez Serraj does not even have complete control of Tripoli, the capital.
Decent Libyans in towns such as Zuwara, Sabratha and Tajoura which are at the center of the people-trafficking “industry” may deplore the heartlessness of their fellow townsfolk but out of kinship loyalty or fear are unprepared to intervene. And there is absolutely no national police or military that could step in to arrest the criminals.
People smuggling is not new to Libya. It was going on quietly and on a far smaller scale during Gaddafi’s time. But since 2014, when the Muslim Brotherhood’s Libya Dawn coalition of militias chased the elected parliament out of the capital to Tobruk, people smuggling has boomed into a business worth many hundreds of millions of dollars. Migrants pay to be transported across Libya. Along the way they are often grabbed and forced to work. Women are raped. Money is demanded of relatives back home. Until the Western Union transfers come through, they have no chance of continuing their journey towards the dreamt of prosperity of Europe. Then they must pay again for sea passage on an overcrowded vessel.
And last year at least 4,500 are known to have paid the ultimate price and died. So far, in the first two months of this year the known death toll is approaching 500. This carnage is Libya’s shame.
