Deceived and Exploited: Classifying the Practice as Human Trafficking

The trafficking trajectories taken by Eritreans to Libya are highly organised by a network of actors across the Horn of Africa. The practices described by the refugees and migrants who have taken these perilous journeys include recruitment by deception, fraud and force. Payments are extracted using torture while victims are detained in ‘warehouses’ and ‘stores’. The purpose of these practices is clearly to exploit people who are vulnerable for financial gain and force them to engage in begging. This chapter argues that the practice satisfies the elements of the crime of human trafficking and that fulfils the elements that constitute human trafficking for ransom.