The current trip of the USS Mount Whitney and Vice-Admiral JT Anderson to Libyan ports is taking place against the backdrop of an ongoing and unabated crisis in Libya; namely, human slavery, and particularly Black slavery. In an unknown location somewhere in the south-eastern part of the Libyan desert, a number of girls are being held captive along with dozens of men who are being held for ransom. They are raped and tortured regularly with videos filmed and sent to their family members back home demanding ransom payments as high as $10,000 for each captive.
One of the girls who has been identified who is being held captive is Hani Haarun Hasan from Ethiopia and is sixteen years old. Another girl, also from Ethiopia has also been identified and is fifteen-years old. She is being described by activists as “the Giorgia Meloni of East Africa” and her captors sent videos to her family of her being tortured.
Earlier this year, the Libyan authorities, mainly the Prosecutor in Tripoli and the Security Forces of Khalifa Haftar, combined their efforts to free a number of slaves after their plight was being widely published in the press. Operations against human smugglers were being widely published in the Libyan press before the Ministry of Interior in Tripoli announced a media blackout for security operations. The government in Benghazi hasn’t issued any notices about arraignments and operations against human smugglers for some time.
The US and the Libyan authorities discuss many security issues, including terrorism, human smuggling and illegal immigration. The US is also engaged in discussions with the Libyan authorities to integrate the two separate governments of the east and west, including their respective security and military apparatuses.
The EU and European governments have signed agreements with Tunisia and Libya and other north African countries to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing across the Mediterranean in return of security aid. Illegal immigrants and refugees traveling through Libya are often met with racism, detention and in many cases even abduction by human slavers and smugglers. Recently, Italy freed a popular Libyan human smuggler who is wanted by the International Criminal Court.
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