Living Skeletons: The Spread of Human Trafficking for Ransom to Libya

There are striking similarities between Sinai trafficking and human trafficking for ransom in Libya. This chapter presents evidence to compare the practices, including the experiences of detainees in the holding camps, the torture methods used to extract ransoms, and the use of mobile phones to broadcast the torture to relatives and facilitate payments. In both places, Eritreans are (were) targeted and, in both places, refugees are (were) trapped in a cycle of human trafficking from which it is hard to escape. It can be concluded that trafficking for ransom has morphed and spread through the whole Horn of Africa – and, with the profitability of the practice, it could spread even wider.