UNITED NATIONS: The Security Council imposed sanctions on six leaders of criminal networks engaged in human trafficking and migrant smuggling from Libya on Thursday, which the Netherlands said was the first time ever that these human rights violators have been targeted by the UN’s most powerful body.
The travel ban and asset freeze were imposed after Russia informed the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Libya that it decided “to lift the hold” it had placed on adding the six men to the sanctions blacklist.
The Netherlands Mission, which led efforts to list the six men, said its aim is “to destroy the business model of human trafficking networks and tackle the appalling human rights situation of migrants that were sold as slaves on the markets of Libya.”
There was widespread global outrage after video footage was broadcast on CNN last November showing the auction and sale of migrant men as slaves in Libya. In early December, the Security Council condemned the sale of African migrants into slavery in Libya as “heinous abuses of human rights” that may constitute crimes against humanity.
Libya emerged as a major conduit for African migrants hoping to reach Europe after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed the country’s longtime dicatator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 and the country slid into chaos, with rival governments and parliaments based in the western and eastern regions, each backed by different militias and tribes.
Last December, the African Union said between 400,000 and 700,000 migrants were thought to be in more than 40 detention camps across Libya, often under inhumane conditions. The International Organization of Migration recorded more than 3,100 deaths among migrants making the Mediterranean crossing in 2017.
Recalling the images of migrants being sold as slaves which “shocked our conscience” and the Security Council’s vow to take action, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said Thursday’s sanctions “send a strong message that the international community is united in seeking accountability for perpetrators of human trafficking and smuggling.”
Haley said blacklisting the six men is “part of a larger international effort to seek accountability for those involved in migrant smuggling and trafficking that threatens the peace, security, or stability of Libya.”
In selecting the six men, she said there was “close collaboration” between the US, Netherlands, France, Britain and Germany.
The six smugglers and traffickers added to the sanctions blacklist are: Mus’ab Abu-Qarin, Mohammed Kachlaf, Abd Al Rahman Al-Milad, Ermias Ghermay, Fitiwi Abdelrazak and Ahmad Oumar Al-Dabbashi.
Al-Dabbashi has been described by the committee as commander of the Anas Al-Dabbashi militia currently active around Zawiya. Abdelrazak is linked to at least two fatal shipwrecks between April 2014 and July 2014.
