Acclaimed journalist and host of Peace FM's morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, Kwami Sefa Kayi has called on the African Union to immediately deal with on-going slave trade in Libya. According to him, such barbaric acts should not be countenanced in this modern era. "Who's the highest bidder? 800 Dinar! 1,000 Dinar! 1,100 Dinar! In the end, the winning bid is 1,200 Libyan Dinar — the equivalent of $800 (€680). A done deal; however, this isn't just any auction for a car or a piece of art. What's being sold here is a group of frightened young men from Sub-Saharan Africa". That was how the USA Today, the internationally distributed American daily and the third-most-circulated newspaper, captured the story on its portal. CNN, on the other hand, reported that hundreds of African refugees and migrants passing through Libya are being bought and sold in modern-day slave markets. According to reports, the trade works by preying on tens of thousands of vulnerable people who risk everything to get to Libya's coast and then across the Mediterranean into Europe - a route that's been described as the deadliest route on earth. Journalists working for CNN discovered several such slave markets in the country's interior, proving what experts had feared for a long time: migrants trying to reach Europe via Libya continue to be subject to abuse. "They [the refugees] are from several African countries and they say they have fled war, poverty and unemployment in their countries ... They have taken a tough journey through the desert and they have paid people smugglers to get to Libya to try to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. With the security and financial collapse in Libya, human trafficking and smuggling have become a booming trade," says Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from a detention centre in the Libyan capital Tripoli. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in an address in New York on Monday, appealed to the Libyan leadership to investigate these cases and bring those responsible for the slave trade to justice. "...slavery has no place in our world and these actions are among the most egregious abuses of human rights and may amount to crimes against humanity," he added. Kwami Sefa Kayi, who was moderating Tuesday's edition of the "Kokrokoo" show, appeared stunned by pictures that have emerged so far and queried: “where is the African Union…” “…there is a slave migrant. We can’t just keep talking without any action. African Union (AU) should do something pragmatic now,” he charged; a view largely shared by panel members on the show that included Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, National Vice-Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Hon Henry Kwabena Kokofu, former NPP Member of Parliament for Bantama in the Ahanti Region. Meanwhile, checks by Peacefmonline.com indicates that the issue of the Slave trade in Libya, has been added to the agenda of next week's African Union meeting in Ivory Coast, to take place on November 29 and 30.
