Enslavement of Black Africans (Libya)

Chris Law Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2017 Westminster Hall

[Chris Law (Dundee West) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Walker. I begin by thanking those who initiated the petition and have secured over a quarter of a million signatures—an incredible feat. It is vital that we bring this hugely important issue to the forefront in Parliament today, and from what I have heard in the previous speeches, all of us in this Chamber feel very passionate about this matter.

As we have heard today, the world’s most vulnerable people, fleeing war and poverty back home, are being abused and auctioned off as slaves in Libya. According to reports, the trade works by preying on the tens of thousands of vulnerable people who risk everything to get to Libya’s coast and then across the Mediterranean into Europe. That has been described as the deadliest route on earth. The International Organisation for Migration, which provides services and advice on migration to refugees, estimates that there are up to 1 million migrants in Libya, and more than 2,000 have died at sea this year attempting to travel that route.

Most of the migrants in Libya are fleeing armed conflict, persecution or severe poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Their journey usually begins with a deadly trek through vast deserts to Libya and then involves either braving the Mediterranean sea on rickety boats headed to Europe or struggling to survive in one of the overcrowded detention centres in Libya, many of which are run by smugglers. As a result, many of those detention centres are the scene of widespread torture, rape and forced labour, according to the United Nations. When they get too crowded, people are sold off like goods in an open market. Testimony from the International Organisation for Migration states that

“they get off the bus and they are quickly put into a kind of murder machine, an extortion machine. They are robbed of their possessions…They are forced, they are tortured…And then they are sold. Unbelievable, but they are sold in open, public auctions: $400 for a labouring man, maybe a bit more for a woman who can be put in the sex trade. And this is what’s happening across the country.”

As we have heard today, recent news footage of scenes reminiscent of the 19th century, when the slave trade was rife, shows auctioneers advertising a group of west African migrants as

“big strong boys for farm work”

and referring to the migrants in Arabic as “merchandise”. That disturbing footage has served as a wake-up call for some and has rightly sparked outrage across the globe. Hundreds of thousands of people have now signed the petition demanding that more be done to stop the sale of vulnerable people in Africa. On 9 December, thousands of protesters descended on the Libyan embassy in London in an anti-slavery march. That followed protests across Europe, including in Stockholm, Paris and Brussels.

Libya is by no means unique: modern-day slavery is widespread around the world. It is happening in developed as well as undeveloped countries. There are estimated to be—wait for it—more than 40 million people in modern slavery in the world today. Forty million people; that is just under two thirds of the population of the UK. What is particularly shocking is that it is happening in the open, particularly in Libya, where people can go to a farmhouse, place a bid and end up “owning” a fellow human being.

The UK Government’s response to modern slavery has been slowly improving in the past few years. An example of that is the passing of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, which of course is very welcome. However, it is time for the Government to go further, with concerted, co-ordinated global action, and to lead from the front. Tackling forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking should be an absolute priority for the UK Government, both here and abroad. I ask the Minister to tell us here today what further steps the UK Government will take in order to lead the international approach to tackling this crisis.

Experts say that reports of slavery coming out of Libya from human rights groups and non-governmental organisations have been falling on deaf ears for a very long time. The UK Government must put pressure on Libyan leaders to stop the illegal markets, and those committing these unspeakable crimes must be brought to justice. We would like to see all UN member states working together to implement and enforce a protocol against human trafficking and slavery. That is not just a moral duty for the UK; it is a duty based on the active role that this Government has played in recent years and in conjunction with NATO in Libya.

This slavery did not come about in a vacuum. The atrocities revealed in the recent footage are the direct result of NATO’s military intervention to topple Gaddafi, which created a lawless society. There are now three Governments: one in the east, one in the west and one backed by the UN, none of which are able to govern. The UK Government had next to no strategy to support and reconstruct post-Gaddafi Libya. Indeed, a report by the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs stated that those failures led to the country becoming a failed state on the verge of all-out civil war. It is against that backdrop that the slave trade is booming. The human rights situation in Libya can be improved only under the stability of a united and representative Government, and the UK Government must work alongside international partners to support UN efforts towards that goal.

Furthermore, the EU goes to great lengths to stop migrants coming into its territory. That even includes training the Libyan coastguard to stop boats reaching Italy. As a partner of the EU, the UK is complicit with the EU as it has pushed to tighten its borders and has not provided alternative safe routes for migrants and refugees.

Amnesty International, in relation to its report published last week, said:

“European governments have not just been fully aware of these abuses…they are complicit in these abuses.”

In other words, it is nothing short of a policy of containment. Amnesty International went on to say:

“European governments have shown where their true priorities lie: namely the closure of the central Mediterranean route, with scant regard to the suffering caused”.

The reality is that that has led to hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants finding themselves trapped in Libya and exposed to horrific abuses, some of which we have heard about today. We will not be able to put an end to the tragedy in the Mediterranean if we do not create significant legal migration routes. It is also important to address the root causes of the crisis if it is to be resolved. We must ensure that people can find a dignified future in their home country. The UK Government need to work with the international community to co-ordinate efforts to tackle the root causes of large movements of people, including forced displacement, unmanaged migration, human trafficking and, of course, the ever increasing slave trade. Will the Minister therefore illustrate in some detail what steps the UK has taken to influence its EU partners to develop safe routes for people fleeing war, armed conflict and persecution?

In short, what we have heard today is that the reports coming from Libya are of violations of human rights and human dignity on an unthinkable scale, and I am sure that all of us in this Chamber agree that they have no place in our world. It goes without saying that the UK cannot stay silent or stand by in the face of such inhumane atrocities, as it has done in the past and continues to do. It is therefore time for the UK to join the international community and act now through multilateral diplomacy with the EU, NATO and the UN Security Council, where the UK still has significant influence, and to take all measures to end slavery in Libya and help to rebuild and reconstruct a stable and secure country.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for the Middle East (Alistair Burt)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Walker. I thank all colleagues who have taken part in this debate, as well as my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Scully) for opening it. Like everyone else, I also thank those who have worked so hard to raise the petition. I think we would all say that the fact that so few colleagues are here does not reflect the level of interest in the House; this debate has landed on a particularly busy day in the House. I venture to suggest that almost every single Member of the House of Commons would have wanted to listen to the speeches made today, and probably to make one themselves. Those who have done so much work to raise the petition should not doubt that they have done a great job. The way in which the House has conducted itself in this debate and the speeches that have been made reflect colleagues’ concern.

The hon. Member for Leeds North East (Fabian Hamilton), who spoke for the Opposition, did my job in running through the speeches. I thank him; I will not repeat the process because he summarised extremely well what colleagues said. I am coming to the substance of the debate, but I take issue with the statements about the intervention in Libya and the aftermath. I was there; I was the Minister responsible at the time. The hon. Gentleman praised Peter Millett; I know how hard diplomats worked in the immediate aftermath of the events that removed Gaddafi. There were elections. We worked to create a civil administration out of nothing, because Gaddafi had left nothing. There was an absolute commitment by those in Libya. They wanted no boots on the ground. There was a limit to what they wanted from the outside world. We tried. The circumstances are clear now: the efforts were not successful, despite all the work that was put in.

There was no abandonment of Libya, but the depth of the damage done by 40 years of Gaddafi and the failure to create any institutions left a bigger hole than probably anyone understood at the time. There were a series of consequences, for which it is impossible to pin blame purely and simply, beyond on those who created the misery in the first place and who were overthrown. That is of only partial consequence now. What is important is to deal with what is happening at present, and that has been the substance of the debate.

[Chris Law]

I want to touch on that important point. We learned some painful lessons around Iraq. In terms of our involvement in Libya, was there preparedness and thought about medium to long-term plans and strategies at the end of the conflict, whatever its outcome, or was it a posthumous question at the end of, “Oh God, here we are now—what do we do next?”

[Alistair Burt]

During the conflict, nobody quite knew how it would end, because the circumstances were happening on the ground, militias were forming and so on. NATO played a part after the Arab League made a presentation to the UN demanding intervention because Benghazi was going to be attacked and people were going to be slaughtered. Let us not forget the reasons why the intervention happened in the first place: the determination to save civilian lives in Benghazi, prompted by the Arab League and the UN, was highly significant.

All the way through the conflict, the sense was “What happens next?” That is why people went in afterwards to seek to build a civil administration and prepare the ground for elections. Those took place, and a Government were established, but the fallout since then has been a combination of pressure from Islamist forces that came into the process afterwards and the inability of those who formed the militias to agree among themselves about how to support the politicians in civil Government. It was thought through, but it could not be imposed.

People themselves must create their own institutions. I remember people at the time praising the fact that there were not boots on the ground determined to do it for the Libyan people—they were doing it for themselves. It was thought through, but for every particular conflict and difficulty, it seems that a new adverse reaction is created, and that is what we are living through now. I will come to that and what we are trying to do, because it is most important.

Anyone who has seen the horrific footage of slave markets in Libya cannot possibly have been unaffected by it; it is appalling. I also put on the record our admiration for the journalists who got the footage. When I saw the pictures of them going into that place, my first thought was, “They’re going to be killed.” How could anyone go into those circumstances unarmed, knowing that the people conducting the auction were who they were and what the outcome was likely to be. If they treated the lives of those whom they were buying and selling with such disdain, what would they think of reporters who were there to expose them? We thank the CNN crew who did such a remarkable job.

We will always remember some of the things that came out of the footage, such as the talk of merchandise, as the hon. Member for West Ham (Lyn Brown) mentioned. The hon. Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) spoke of wickedness, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam. We discussed the fact that once someone has a mindset of treating someone else as not human, there is virtually nothing that they will feel unable to do. That has been the scourge of the region and other parts of the world for too long.

The Government share the deep concern and alarm expressed about modern slavery, the formation of the conditions that have produced the migration, and what migrants face in Libya today. As the hon. Member for Dundee West (Chris Law) reminded us, we must not forget that the men, women and children enslaved in Libya typically began their journeys hundreds or even thousands of miles away. They are likely to have fallen foul of traffickers and organised criminal gangs that pay no heed either to the desperate human suffering caused by their despicable trade or to international borders. That is why our work to help the victims of traffickers, prevent others from falling victim to them and shut down the trafficking networks that exploit migrants must be carried out on an international scale, as all hon. Members have said.

Let me first brief hon. Members on the UK Government’s work to tackle modern slavery globally and then focus on the situation in Libya. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has identified modern slavery as

“the great human rights issue of our time”.

She sponsored the Modern Slavery Act 2015, which more than one hon. Member has referred to this afternoon. Eradicating modern slavery is one of our top foreign policy priorities. As we know, modern slavery exists here, too, although not to the degree that we saw on those awful videos. It is everywhere, and tackling it is a cause that unites decent people everywhere.

It is not acceptable that slavery still exists in the 21st century. We reckon that this vile trade generates around £150 billion a year for traffickers and organised criminal groups. As a criminal enterprise, it is second only to the drugs trade. Trafficking of people is horrific and criminal, but it generates huge amounts of money and that is why it goes on.

We are pressing for concerted and co-ordinated global action. We are strengthening the international consensus to support migrants, tackle modern slavery and take a comprehensive approach to migration. The hon. Member for Dundee West asked what we were doing internationally. At the UN General Assembly in September, the Prime Minister convened world leaders to launch a call to action to end modern slavery. She also committed to using UN sanctions to target people traffickers and strengthening the ability of Libyan law enforcement agents to tackle these criminals. The hon. Member for West Ham is absolutely correct that if the people responsible can be identified individually, there are sanctions that can be applied. Most of us would like very serious sanctions to be used against them.

We are also doubling our aid spending on modern slavery to £150 million. That money will be used to address the root causes of slavery, strengthen law enforcement capacity in transit countries and provide support for the victims of these horrific crimes. Their ordeal does not end when they are released; it goes on in their memory.

The UK is committed to addressing illegal migration across the Mediterranean, including through work in Libya and further upstream. Hon. Members mentioned the need to bring different elements together; the UK supports a comprehensive approach that addresses the drivers of illegal migration and reduces the need for dangerous onward movements. That includes not only breaking the business model of smugglers and the trafficking rings that prey on the desperation of migrants, but providing vital protection to victims. The UK’s National Crime Agency is working with Libyan law enforcement, enhancing its capability to tackle the people-smuggling and trafficking networks.

Our new £75 million migration programme will specifically target migrants travelling from west Africa to Libya via the Sahel. It will provide critical humanitarian assistance and protection; assist those along the way who may wish to return home; give information about the dangers ahead; and offer vulnerable people meaningful alternatives to treacherous journeys through Libya and Europe. It will also include a scale-up of reintegration support in countries of origin, particularly for those returning from Libya.

The UK is conscious of the links between migration, people-smuggling and modern slavery. We are increasingly building modern slavery programming into our migration work. We have also assisted vulnerable migrants with voluntary returns. UK bilateral funding has helped more than 1,400 individuals to escape the challenging circumstances in Libya and return home. The hon. Member for Leeds North East spoke about the voices of those involved; as the recent programme demonstrated, it is those voices that are most powerful in dissuading others from leaving.

If I may make a wider point, a significant amount of our international development contribution of 0.7% of gross national income is designed to be used in countries where we want to support the provision of alternatives for people who feel that their smartphone shows them a different life. We must not neglect how easy it now is for people to find out what is happening elsewhere. There are safer alternatives to leaving, but that can happen only when international development work of the kind that we are engaged in bears fruit.