Editor’s note: Olusegun is a correspondent for Immigration News and recently contacted me regarding the problem of slavery. Considering the present global crisis, this article will provide a perspective of those struggling across the world.
by Olusegun Akinfenwa
During the transatlantic era, chains, padlocks, shackles, and overcrowded ships formed the major symbols of the slave trade. But in the 21st century, slavery has taken another dimension and come in different guises, including voluntary migration among African youths.
There are currently 36 million Africans living overseas, both within and outside the continent. While migration in itself isn’t a bad thing, the living condition of many African migrants in their countries of destination calls for concern.
Difficulties at home have been the cause of the growing interest in emigration among young Africans, as home no longer feels safe and easy. Their top intercontinental destination choices include the US, Canada, and Europe, while many also visit Asian countries.
High Travel Cost and Stringent Requirements Lead to Illegal Migration
For many Africans, the legal immigration process and criteria to foreign countries are difficult and expensive.
According to a study from 2019, Africans are twice more likely to be rejected a UK visa than applicants from other countries. They are also among the top countries rejected by the United States. Nevertheless, many Africans are keen to travel overseas, at any cost, despite this high percentage of visa denials. They understand the advantages that come with securing permanent residence in those countries, such as green cards in the US, settled status in the UK, and other developed economies.
As a result of their frustration and impatience, some migrants travel via unorthodox routes, which are not only illegal but dangerous. They lack legal protection on these routes and are at the mercy of smuggling syndicates most of the time. They are subjected to poor treatments and hard labour in excruciating conditions.
The 2018 Global Slavery Index reveals that approximately 9.2 million Africans are in modern slavery, and many illegal migrants have been discovered to be victims of this menace, fuelled by pure greed and wickedness on the part of human traffickers cum slave masters, and desperation on the part of the travellers.
The desperate migrants from various parts of Africa take different illegal routes to Europe, North America, and Asia. Many travel through hot deserts and war-torn areas to get to Libya, which is among the most popular illegal routes out of Africa.
They travel by boat – not ship – from Libya across the Mediterranean Sea. In Libya, they can get arrested and prosecuted by authorities. Close to a million migrants are trapped in the north African country, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Smugglers and militias are holding some of these migrants.
Libyan smugglers take advantage of migrants’ desperation to charge between $750 and $3500 for a passage on their boat. Usually, the boats are overcrowded and unfit to travel in. In the course of the voyage, many would have experienced life-threatening hunger, thirst and ill-health. Other common experiences on the journey include extortion, deception and brutality from their handlers.
Thousands of migrants perish each year across the Mediterranean Sea. Between 2013 and 2017, over 3,000 deaths were recorded each year on the sea. People commonly die by drowning or from thirst, cold, asphyxia, and fuel inhalation. Additionally, over 30,000 people have gone missing in the desert since 2014.
Despite the danger, Time reports that over 106,000 African migrants attempted to cross the Mediterranean by boat from Libya to Italy in 2021. Many African migrants who manage to arrive at their intended destination find their dreams of living a better life dashed when subjected to cruel treatment and harsh economic realities and has led many migrants into various kinds of shady means for survival.
Notably, not all African migrants experiencing servitude abroad relocated via illicit means. Even after following and completing all legal procedures to travel, some people still end up in modern slavery. This can be due to a lack of appropriate skills and unrealistic expectations.
Migrants’ Vulnerability Exploited By Trafficking Syndicates
Upon arrival, it is sometimes too late before realizing they lack the skills required in their new country. Given the global prevalence of modern slavery, their vulnerability is easily exploited. Some of these unlawful migrants who traverse Europe are apprehended and deported back to Libya by authorities. They can end up in prison overseas or back in Libya.
According to some findings, between 3,000 and 5,000 migrants are detained in Libyan prisons. Furthermore, smugglers and traffickers are holding so many individuals hostage in different parts of the Arab country. They torture, abuse, and extort them from them in unlawful locations.
Forced Prostitution
In foreign countries, especially Europe, thousands of female African migrants are pushed into prostitution. Nancy, a young Nigerian migrant, is one of the victims of such organized prostitution rings. Nancy’s parents had been approached by a couple who promised to take her to Europe and assist her career as a fashion designer. The young lady and her family expressed their gratitude and promised to repay the travel expenses.
However, after a few days on the road, she was met with a gross condition. The couple said she owed them $50,000 in travel expenses as well as the cost of her forged documents. To repay them, she had to work as a prostitute. If she didn’t work to pay, they would kill her and her mother. This was the beginning of her sex slavery journey. [Dee Mclachlan’s note | The film I made in Australia in 2007 called THE JAMMED was based on this exact sex trafficking formula — but from SE Asia to Australia]
The dubious and malicious agents usually bear their travel expenses, with the understanding that they will pay when they reach their destination and start working. But, they are hit with a huge debt, sometimes as high as €30,000, upon arrival. This does not include other fees imposed by their traffickers, such as boarding and utilities. To make ends meet, they must engage in sex work.
Unfortunately, these migrants continue to work for years and find it impossible to free themselves as they can’t cover the huge debt from the proceeds of prostitution. Not to mention that the debts keep increasing as they stay under the roof of their captors. According to the Los Angeles Times, 80% of the approximately 10,000 female Nigerian migrants who migrate to Italy from Libya end up as sex workers. In Germany, where prostitution is legal, the number is much higher.
Hard Labour, Drug Trafficking, Frustration and Suicide
In 2017, CNN broadcasted footage of African migrants being auctioned as slaves at a slave auction in a Libyan detention camp. Despite the widespread condemnation of the inhumane practice, the practice still continues. Those who make it to Europe alive are not exempt from the same treatment. In 2018, 16 males from various African countries enslaved by a system known as caporalato died in Puglia, Italy, as reported by Time Magazine.
Some African migrants who fall into the hands of drug lords engage in drug trafficking. This is common in North and South America and Southeast Asia. Drug cartels in these regions deceive their recruits that they are invincible. Many migrants have been caught in this act and are sentenced to long or life jail terms, while some get execution.
Hundreds of Nigerians were said to be serving prison sentences for drug-related crimes in several countries abroad in 2019. This included 144 in Brazil, 650 in Thailand, and 73 in Malaysia on death row. Also, 199 Nigerians were among the 1,281 convicts on death row in Malaysia for drug-related offences. For drug-related crimes, three Nigerians were executed by firing squad in Indonesia in 2016.
The inhumane experiences have forced many migrants into suicide ideation. According to recent studies, there may be an increased risk of suicide among migrants in various parts of the world. Around 31 Ugandans committed suicide in the United Arab Emirates in 2017 for these reasons. The physical and emotional trauma caused by torture and other forms of human rights abuse is among the factors responsible.
Forced prostitution, drug trafficking, and other factors (working in the scorching sun for hours every day) lead to migrants regarding suicide as the only way out of their never-ending misery, as there is little or no prospect of escape.
After battling to survive back in Africa and confronting similar or worse situations overseas, it’s as if things can never get better. These growing difficulties should dissuade other African hopefuls from illegal and desperate migration. Unfortunately, many people are still willing to put everything on the line to escape the humanitarian and economic problems in their home countries. More than ever before, African leaders need to look inward and build an enabling environment that encourages growth and productivity of their citizens.
The growing inequality gap in the continent must be addressed as a matter of urgency. This will reduce the growing rate of illegal and desperate migration abroad leading to slavery abroad. [Editor’s note: It would help if the foreign companies would not pillage Africa as they do.]
Olusegun Akinfenwa is a correspondent for Immigration News, a news media affiliated with Immigration Advice Service. IAS is a leading UK immigration law firm that helps people migrate and settle in the UK.
I read up to the forced prostitution part and had to stop.
It seems to me:
The pillaging is entrenched but worse than that Africa is “not allowed” self-governance as we saw when Hillary and Obama took out Gaddafi. The Africans will have to unite under some other founding fathers and produce some institutions for their own people such as an African supreme court which can demand that Hillary and Obama be handed over, and that the totally corrupt within Africa are locked up until nearly dead.
Unfortunately I have to “prefix” this with the observation that too much is made of African slavery, everyone was liable to becoming a slave in the past, including British children, vagrants etc. The Africans were POWs of tribal wars and those who couldn’t be sold were probably killed. The tribal wars were caused by profligate breeding, just as they used to do in Europe, but the Europeans got into the rest of the world first, and that’s why they retain it. There are no prizes for being second. The Africans seem to be hostage and victim to their own mentality, they seem to be unable to cut themselves a better deal either through level-headed co-operation or civil rights or any sort of top-down collectivism, hence it’s easy for them to be exploited, notably with mining, where they are paid a miniscule portion of the total price of whatever they dig up.
They seem to be able to think (unlike some TV controlled cultures), they know what’s going on, but they seem to be unable to organise, and their brightest hope, Libya, was destroyed quite simply by the assassination of one man, maybe this was Africa’s JFK moment, and maybe it’s all going to get steadily worse.
Excellent post, W3.
US/NATO has continued the colonisation of Africa and one of the reasons Ghadaffi was killed was that he was the sole hope of a unified Africa.
I have Congalese friends who want to free their country from US military occupation and, with this goal in mind, they wish one day to return.
But many Africans, when they enter a country, refuse to fit in. I am remineded of the several African women who regularly appear on the ABC’s The Drum, and who impose their ignorant and arrogant opinions on Australians (cheered on by the ABC hosts).
I want these people out of my country because (a) they arrived uninvited, (b) they are attempting to colonise Australia, and (c) they are obnoxious.
w3,you make a good comparison of Gaddafi and JFK. Both wanted to take control of their country from the hands of the City of London Cabal. Gaddafi in particular had made life in Libya much more bearable during his leadership much to the disgust of overseas bankers. Even worse he was going to displace the banksters from Africa.
Gaddafi’s “Little Green Book” lays out the form of government being practiced in Libya. A far better form than our so-called democracy. Government was from ground up. In later years Gaddafi was not the dictator that the West likes to portray. He was tough but liked by “his” people.
A question. Where is the United Nation involved in all this slavery and corruption? Nowhere to be seen. But if a western country is accused of human rights abuse within that country the UN plays politics in a big way.
Yes to most of the above, but who, how and why … ?
While I continue reading … here are some key parts of the puzzle …
• Barbara Lerner Spectre
• Obama, NATO, Libya and Gaddafi
(This is NOT an organic movement of people.)
• Kalergi Plan
For example …
https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2016/10/04/the-coudenhove-kalergi-plan-white-genocide-by-design-part-1/
• Angela Merkel
http://www.renegadetribune.com/angela-merkel-kalergi-plan-destruction-white-race/?doing_wp_cron=1534913539.2748529911041259765625
• Professor Tony Martin
https://www.bitchute.com/video/VQVovrt5jzsX/
Clearly, this is just the second wave of the Final Solution. Yes, the Africans will be herded into Slavery 2.0 (2800 are needed for each slave master I recall) but this time the European races will no longer exist.
https://gumshoenews.com/2017/06/21/the-plan-to-keep-africa-enslaved/
Dispatched… by Assassination
The first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was Patrice Lumumba.
Lumumba had said in his Independence speech:
“…We shall see to it that the lands of our native country truly benefit its children. We shall revise all the old laws and make them into new ones that will be just and noble. We shall stop the persecution of free thought.”
Dangerous words for those who wish to control resources and money.
He was assassinated on 17 January, 1961. And (as reported in The Guardian),
“this heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments.”
A central bank in the Congo was established in 1964, three years after Lumumba’s death.
A more recent example of murder and plunder in Africa is Libya.
Muammar Gaddafi and the Gold Dinar
Muammar Gaddafi had instituted a state-owned central bank in Libya and a value-based trade currency, the Gold Dinar.
He announced that Libya’s oil was for sale, but only for the Gold Dinar. Other African nations flocked to the new Libyan currency for trade.
Africa was essentially an enslaved continent — and Gaddafi was all about strengthening Africa. And it was Gaddafi’s Libya that offered all of Africa its freedom.
He saw to it that Libya modernized early – connecting the entire continent by telephone, television, radio broadcasting and several other technological applications. And thanks to the WMAX radio bridge, a low cost connection was made available across the African continent, including in rural areas.
In my opinion, Dee, your best post ever. well said.
A CCP style social digital credit system, applies to everything from sex, to who you associate with, who they associate with and so on. More bs unfolding daily in snoops and goons dystopia. No longer shackled at ankles, now around throats. With forced jabs no pay/no play this is the end game. We are all Africa now, more precisely Palestinians.
The business as usual sign is still up then.
The Africans shown above are in the damned if you do or don’t. There is a equally long history of “at home” slavery. Its dressed up as mining(the mining is real enough), so other(the same) co-slave trades are found along side. After your local leader takes a cut, “room and bored”, travel fees etc, US$750 would take a life time to save in the Congo.
Like this article, I’ll also sneak in, that whole Boka Haram, Obama farce. You know we can see a packet of cigarettes from space but Mich’s girls have just vanished like picnickers at Hanging(hello) Rock.
(I picked up around 10 mistakes in the first 36 seconds …)
Like wars, refuges and mass-immigration is good for business. Have a look at who’s working in our two mega cities. One web one world economy global slavery where children are traded as commodities.
Most of these supposed refugees would have no idea that they are to be used as a proxy invasion force for Globalist bankers.
Crimes of the Bolsheviks
. . . edited by Isabella Fanfani
An edited abridgment of A Sea of Blood: the Truth about Bolshevik Russia, a 12,000-word pamphlet originally published in Munich (1926) and authored by a Russian émigré known as “Dr Gregor”.
Pictures and captions by Lasha Darkmoon
https://www.darkmoon.me/2011/crimes-of-the-bolsheviks/
Good selection and reminder, thanks CC.
As you say, this is an excerpt edited by Isabella Fanfani which can be followed along with this audio reading:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/1lhPvUtVxVz4/
At the start of Section “3. Tsars assassinated by the Jews” –
“After Nicholas I, his son Alexander II mounted the throne, a true friend of his people. In 1861 he abolished serfdom and gave the peasants land. This reform happened through the mir arrangement of village communities — an institution far closer to true and sincere communism than the capitalistic, tax-exploitative system we see in Soviet Russia today [1926].”
“Alexander II, who in 1864 gave his people a whole new trial procedure for their court system — then the fairest and most progressive in Europe — underwent seven attempts to assassinate him, until finally, in an eighth attempt perpetrated by Goldmann, Liebermann and Zuckermann […] successfully carried out the wishes of London.
[Great Britain was by this time in the control of the Jewish bankers of the City of London.]
Alexander II, the great benefactor of his nation, was dynamited on March 1, 1881 — the very day that he was to bestow on his country a new, constitutional form of government.”
Just repeating that parenthetic sentence- [“Great Britain was by this time in the control of the Jewish bankers of the City of London.]”
In fact this had been the case much earlier than the 1920s, and this needs to be understood when talking about all wars being bankers wars …
The full version can be found on archive.org or here …
• Schwartz-Bostunitsch Gregor – A Sea of Blood – The Truth about Bolshevik Russia
https://balderexlibris.com/index.php?post/2012/01/19/Schwartz-Bostunitsch-Gregor-A-Sea-of-Blood
A couple more related titbits (just allow auto translate if required)
• Bloody Rosalia Zemlyachka (Zalkind)
http://anvictory.org/blog/2011/07/04/krovavaya-rozaliya-zemlyachka-zalkind/
• Stakhanovites in the NKVD
https://urb-a.livejournal.com/5791269.html