Press. voanews.com
The plight of
migrants in Libya was the focal point of a U.N. Security Council meeting
Tuesday after CNN aired shocking footage of African migrants apparently being
sold as slaves in that country. The envoys called for the prosecution and the
possible imposition of sanctions on human traffickers and their networks. The footage that
aired last week, in which young men from Niger and other sub-Saharan countries
were shown being auctioned off as farm workers for about $400, sparked
international outrage, including protests in Europe and Africa.
Libya’s U.N.
envoy, Elmahdi Elmajerbi, said the government was investigating the CNN video,
but he questioned its authenticity and said his country was the victim of
"a large-scale false media campaign of defamation" trying to portray
Libya as a racist country. French U.N.
Ambassador François Delattre, whose government called for the council meeting,
said victims were subjected to horrific human rights violations including rape,
torture and arbitrary detention.
Such practices
"are not merely intolerable from the moral standpoint, they also
constitute crimes against humanity, and they must not, they cannot, be left
unpunished,” he said through an interpreter.
The U.N. envoy
recommended that the council impose targeted sanctions against individuals
implicated in human trafficking and suggested that perpetrators could be
referred to the International Criminal Court for prosecution.
Several council
members also urged measures to address the root causes of forced migration,
especially poverty, and they called for opening new legal pathways for
migrants. U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said 17,000 migrants were in detention
in Libya and many more were being held by smugglers and traffickers protected
by militia groups. He said the United Nations had secured the release of about
1,000 asylum seekers and refugees this year.
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