Donald Trump's Lifting the Ban on Imported Exotic Animals Was Reported
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: Tonight an atrocity straight out of the past.</s>NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The numbers roll in. These men are sold for 1,200 Libyan pounds (ph), $400 a piece. You are watching an auction of human beings.</s>AMANPOUR: Nima Elbagir, with an exclusive look at a modern-day slave auction in Libya. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our weekend review of some of our main stories. I'm Christiane Amanpour in New York. A dark chapter in human history is playing out in Northern Africa. Libya, a failed state since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, is where human cargo is funneled through on its way through the deadly trail of migration from Sub- Saharan Africa over the sea to Italy. The country is full of migrants now, who carry horrific stories of beatings and kidnappings, and, yes, even enslavement.</s>ELBAGIR: I'm Nima Elbagir in London. Earlier this week, we broke the news of modern-day slave auctions in Libya and presented the evidence to the authorities. CNN has now learned that they are opening a formal investigation into the practice, based on the evidence we provided. Senior officials promised to find and repatriate those who were sold into slavery and to convict those responsible for those -- for these inhumane acts. CNN's Freedom Project has been exposing all forms of slavery and human trafficking. Our team made it to Libya as part of the Freedom Project, to witness this inhumane story for ourselves.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).</s>ELBAGIR (voice-over): A man addressing an unseen crowd. "Big strong boys for farm work." He says "400, 700, 700 (ph), 800." The numbers roll in. These men are sold for 1,200 Libyan pounds (ph), $400 a piece. You are watching an auction of human beings.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).</s>ELBAGIR (voice-over): Another man, claiming to be a buyer. Off camera, someone asks, "What happened to the ones from Niger?"</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).</s>ELBAGIR (voice-over): "Sold off," he told. CNN was sent this footage by a contact. After months of working, we were able to verify the authenticity of what you see here. We decided to travel to Libya to try and see for ourselves.</s>ELBAGIR: We're now in Tripoli and we're starting to get a little bit more of a sense of how this all works. Our contacts are telling us that there are one to two of these auctions every month and that there is one happening in the next few hours. So we're going to head out of town and see if we can get some sort of access to it.</s>ELBAGIR (voice-over): For the safety of our contacts, we have agreed not to divulge the location of this auction, but the town we're driving to isn't the only one. Night falls, we travel through nondescript suburban neighborhoods, pretending to look for a missing person. Eventually, we stop outside a house like any other, adjust our secret cameras, and wait. Finally, it's time to move. We're ushered in to one of two auctions happening on this same night. Crouched at the back of the house (ph), a floodlight obscuring much of the scene, one-by-one men are brought out as the bidding begins.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).</s>ELBAGIR (voice-over): Four hundred, five hundred, five fifty, six hundred, six fifty, seven hundred (ph). Very quickly, it's over. We ask if we can speak to the men.</s>ELBAGIR (voice-over): The auctioneer, seen here, refuses. We ask again if we can speak to them, if we can help them. "No," he says, "the auction's over with." And we're asked to leave. That was over very quickly. We walked in and as soon as we walked in, the men started covering their faces but they clearly wanted to finish what they were doing and they kept bringing out what they kept referring to in Arabic as badayie, the merchandise. All in all they admitted to us that there were 12 Nigerians that were sold in front of us. And I honestly don't know what to say. That was probably one of the most unbelievable things that I have ever seen.</s>UNIDENTIFED MALE: You guys only want to take us to (inaudible). Let us stay close to our various countries.</s>ELBAGIR (voice-over): These men are migrants with dreams of being smuggled to Europe by sea.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).</s>ELBAGIR (voice-over): They come in the thousands from Niger, Mavi, Nigeria, Ghana. It's hard to believe that these are the lucky ones rescued from warehouses like the one in which we witnessed the auction. They're sold if those warehouses become overcrowded or if they run out of money to pay their smugglers. Of these rescued men, so many here say they were held against their will. It doesn't take us long to find victory.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Justice (inaudible)</s>ELBAGIR (voice-over): Victory was a slave.</s>ELBAGIR: We know that some people are being sold.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>ELBAGIR: Some people are being sold. Is this something you've heard about? Can you tell us about them? Tell us.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. I was sold.</s>ELBAGIR: What happened?</s>UNIDENTIFED MALE: On the way from here I was sold. If you look at most of the peopleif you check our body you see the mark. They are vicious with the electric. They really are brutal with sharp (inaudible). Do you understand? (inaudible) lost their lives there. I was there. Most of the people (inaudible) Our (inaudible) best look to give you my money. They took me out of. So the money was not even that much.</s>ELBAGIR (voice-over): Other migrants now start to come forward with their stories.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They took people to work by force. Even where we are-</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where we at-</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible) I'm doing the work</s>UNIDENTIFED MALE: I promise you I will take care of (inaudible)</s>ELBAGIR: [Anisir Asazbi] is the supervisor here with no international support it's his job to look after the captured migrants until they can be deported. He says everyday brings fresh heartbreak.</s>ANISIR ASAZIBI, SUPERVISOR: I'm suffering for them. I am suffering for them. What they have seen here daily, believe me, it makes me really feel frightened for them. They come and every story is a special case. They were abusing them, they stole their money.</s>ELBAGIR: Have you heard about people being auctioned off, about migrants being sold?</s>ASAZIBI: Honestly, we hear the rumors but there's nothing as obvious in front of us. We don't have everything.</s>ELBAGIR: But we now do. CNN has delivered this evidence to the Libyan authorities who have promised to launch an investigation so that scenes like this are returned to the (inaudible). Nima Elbagir, CNN, Libya.</s>ELBAGIR: We are so grateful for the response to our report and to all of those who shared it around the world. Its forced officials to take notice. This is a story, of course, at it's heart about people. So we want to bring you more from 21 year old victory as so many of you were touched by his story.</s>VICTORY, MALE: Going back home now. We start together. Mosul got Europe now. (inaudible) they are doing (inaudible) them have grown up. I go back start back from square one. It's very painful. Very painful. Even when they give us food here, that wasn't the main problem to me. (inaudible) me is I'm going to start (inaudible) the main problem. Because I have lost a lot. I have lost a lot. It is very difficult. All I have to say that it is a year now (inaudible) so in this kind of (inaudible) deporting numbers of people that is also deported with (inaudible). If you look at it you are deporting us. Before we left, we all have a dream. Isn't it?</s>UNIDENTIFED MALES: Yes.</s>VICTORY: We all have a dream, you understand? Hoping that we will get there. We achieve something because a lot of (inaudible) where they were too (inaudible) to learn. We see what they achieve. We believe that we will get (inaudible). That's why we leave.</s>ELBAGIR: Joining me now on the line for more on this is Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration in Libya. This man, [Valvace], Mr. Valvace thank you so much for joining us.</s>VALVACE, CHIEF OF MISSION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION IN LIBYA: Thank you for having me, thank you.</s>ELBAGIR: I, I know that you have heard this news now that the Libyan authorities are formally starting an investigation into what we uncovered and of course we should say that this was first reported by your agency, by the International Organization for Migration. You were the first to report on these slave auctions of migrants. So my question to you is, does the news of this investigation, does it give you help Mr. Valvace?</s>VALVACE: We definitely will count the news for any investigation and we hope this will uncover not only this case but definitely all the cases of abuse and violence against migrants.</s>ELBAGIR: Given that the Libyan authority though, the GNA, the internationally recognized Libyan government, the reality is that it's remade it's actual territorial hold. It's pretty limited. Does that concern you when you think of the scope, the stranglehold that these criminal networks have on this country. Until there is actual security in Libya, can there ever be any hope for these migrants?</s>VALVACE: So talking about Libya here we are talking also about (inaudible) country with borders that covers six neighboring countries in addition to the Mediterranean Sea. Now the situation in the country, in Libya, is definitely challenging in terms of the political situation, the economy situation, but most important the security situation in the country with the lack of basic services. Having more than 200,000 displaced Libyans also increase the scope and the impact of the problem. Now the main challenge in Libya is the fact that the smuggling networks are becoming stronger, more organized, and better equipped. In addition, the law enforcement authorities or officials officers does not have the protection they require to carry out their duties. So what's going to happen to them when they go back home? They will be definitely targeted by the smugglers. So we need, we defiantly make sure that there is a political and security stability in the country if we want to stop such practices. Otherwise this will be very challenges and such practices unfortunately will continue.</s>ELBAGIR: Two incredibly perceptive and excellent points Mr. Valvace there regarding the strength of the networks and the fragility, the vulnerability of the security services themselves. Thank you so much for joining us. Unfortunately we're going to have to leave it there.</s>CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST OF AMANPOUR: Coming up, even in peace time cyber warfare is being waged and a former US Defense Secretary says the US military is not up to speed. His candid assessment next.