By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Senior Correspondent
The widely reported and condemnable case of slave trade thriving in Libya, a North African country has evoked the ire of ActionAid Intetnational, a non-governmental human rights and poverty alleviation organisation which has thus called on African Union (A U) to sanction Libya by suspending it from the continental body pending the full release of all the captives and those in slavery.
Being perturbed by the primitive practice of slave trade still existing in this 21st century in Libya, ActionAid in a petition to the Chairman of the African Union, Moussa Faki Mahamat, demanded the AU to unequivocally condemn the enslavement in very strong terms. It implored each African government to immediately identify; register and track their citizens in and across Libya and Europe as a first step to releasing them from physical or economic captivity and bondage and bring them home as free citizens.
The group also stressed the need to develop a clear strategy for the rehabilitation of returnees in their respective countries, positing that a clear strategy should be developed to reach more young men and women with programmes that protect all their human rights and guarantees them safety and security.
In addition, the International organization tasked AU to provide appropriate and adequate information and an open process for migration to their citizens who want to migrate, urging them to take immediate steps to work with International Organization for Migration, Italy and other European countries to protect the human rights of all migrants.
Reacting to the slave trade saga in Libya, ActionAid’s Regional director for East and Southern Africa, Jemal Ahmed, expressed the negative impact of the slave trade particularly on young people, as they are the ones who are making the perilous journeys to Europe in search of greener pastures.
“Tragically, many sub-Saharan young people are increasingly getting ensnared in the slave trade in Libya in search of better opportunities in Europe. It is a real irony that while governments often claim they prioritize youth, the continent is faced with Libyan slavery and slave trade challenges”.he expressed.
Also the organization’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Ojobo Atuluku said: “The extreme injustices meted out on the migrants who are using the country as a transit zone to Europe is unacceptable. Slavery and the slave trade are an outrage”.
She implored the AU to go beyond rhetoric and intervene to put an end to the tragic and horrible injustices thriving in Libya.
The Interim Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, Funmilayo Oyefusi, said “the high number of Nigerian youths amongst the evacuated populations has made it evident, more than ever, that the government needs to take urgent steps to restore the confidence of youths in the Nigerian state through sustainable empowerment programmes.’’
According to Oyefusi, “the increasing number of graduates competing for scarce employment opportunities coupled with the continuous brain drain of the nation’s best human capital has continuously widened the poverty gap and makes one wonder what the future holds”.
She therefore called on the Nigerian government to prioritize the rehabilitation and re-integration of the returnees and devise clear strategies that will protect the human rights of Nigerian migrants and fast-track response to similar infringements if it occurs.
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