‘Migrants for sale’: An investigation into the clandestine migrant sm

“Bring one packet of cigarettes, and I promise you, you’re going to finish it in Italy.” That was the pledge the smuggler back in Syria made before Murad* (name changed upon request) handed over 1,500 US dollars.

Not only did the smuggler vow that Murad would be in Europe within a matter of days, but he also promised that a “big ship” would transport Murad across the Mediterranean Sea.

“That was seven months ago,” Murad told InfoMigrants onboard the Geo Barents after he was rescued by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) crew from an overcrowded wooden boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean.

“Luck really plays a big part in it,” Murad added. He shared the story of a Syrian friend who arrived in Libya, spent the night in a villa, the next day was on a boat, and is now in Germany.

Murad did not stay in a villa; instead, he spent seven months in smuggler-owned “farms,” hotels, and in Libyan detention.

“In May last year, I brought winter clothes for when I reached Europe because it would be cold in Turkey and in Europe. So you can imagine how long I was planning to stay in Libya. My thoughts were like, we’re gonna spend five, 10, maybe 20 days in Libya, then I’m off to Europe,” Murad recalled.

Murad said he wants to remain anonymous because the people who assisted the migrant smugglers in various cities across Libya work in the country’s illegal migration office.

Finding a smuggler, costs, accommodation and reaching Libya

Murad is a Palestinian in his twenties who for several years sought safety in Syria before his adopted country also spiraled into conflict. Murad speaks fluent English, has a degree in business administration and marketing, and also spent some time living in Saudi Arabia. He had applied for a visa to various countries in Europe, Australia and other Arab states, but all were rejected. He felt he had exhausted all his options, and so he opted to go the irregular route. 

The first time Murad tried to reach Europe was on a fiber-based inflatable boat from Turkey to Greece. Turkish authorities detained the group of migrants for five days after the boat started to take on water.

“We were caught by the police, they were very nice, actually. It was very humane. They kept us warm. So they just let us go after that,” Murad recalled. He felt encouraged to try again.

“Basically you call someone in Syria, you tell them you want to go to Libya. Everyone in Syria thinks about it [seeking asylum in Europe], so everyone knows which [smuggler] works. It’s a matter of a phone call to your closest friend or a family member,” Murad explained. “Someone you know in Syria, you just call and say, ‘hello, do you know someone? Yes, my friend got out, he’s in Germany, he went with this guy.'” But Murad warned that it’s very “dangerous” to look for a smuggler on the social media platform Facebook. “You can’t trust that.”

Murad said he called an acquaintance in Syria, who recommended a relative as a smuggler and provided his phone number. The acquaintance reassured Murad that his own brother had used the same smuggler.

“In Syria, every smuggler, they say, don’t worry,” Murad said.

The smuggler promised Murad would be taken across the Central Mediterranean on a “big ship” – Murad’s main precondition. Murad said he did not know at the time that such promises were largely based on deception. The service would cost 1,500 dollars, similar to the 2023 Mediterranean-crossing fees for many Syrians.

The smuggler, however, told Murad he would send someone to pick him up at the airport in Libya and handle the sea crossing, but that he would have to find someone else to get him from Turkey to Libya. So Murad reached out to a contact who owned a travel agency and asked if he could organize an “investment visa” for Libya. Instead, the travel agent asked, “Well, do you want to go just to Libya or you want to continue to Italy? You can do that all with me.”

Murad said he was surprised the agent also offered irregular services, but felt it would be simpler to carry out the entire journey from Turkey to Italy with one ‘service provider.’ Moreover, the travel agent promised that if Murad paid 4,500 dollars – much higher than the typical Libya-Italy smuggling fee of 1,500 dollars – he would have the luxury of waiting in hotels instead of smuggler-run hideouts until his Mediterranean Sea crossing departure date.

“People who paid less than 4,500 dollars just spend time in what they call storages. Basically, it’s a big space, not very clean, bad conditions, and they put 200, 300, maybe 400 people in there. So I was lucky to be able to pay him 500 more,” Murad said. In addition, the agent would assist in facilitating what he called an ‘investor agreement’ with the Benghazi government so that Murad could enter Libya.

“‘Investor visa,’ ‘investor agreement,’ they’re just names. They [Libya] know why Syrians do that [enter Libya]. Basically it’s a ‘legal bribe’,” Murad explained. It seemed like the best deal at the time, and Murad was aware that smugglers were increasing their fees for the Mediterranean route each year. 

After making his payment, Murad flew from Turkey to Libya on the so-called investor visa on May 21, 2023 and stayed in hotels hassle-free until August 30.

“My smuggler was serious and took care of bribes, took care of everything. That’s why it cost me at least 500 more. It’s at least 1,000 besides his profit, so he accounted for all that… Personally, I was very lucky.”

‘The people in charge of stopping the migration were facilitating the smuggling’

In June 2023, Murad received his first notification to prepare for embarkation to cross the Central Mediterranean. Murad and a couple of others were waiting to hop into the cars waiting for them outside. Then one of the smugglers received a “very long” phone call.

“He then left, five minutes after that, we hear a lot of gunshots. Thirty minutes go by and we called him, what’s going on? He says the trip is cancelled,” Murad recalled. The smuggler informed the group they had encountered some “problems.” A Europe-bound fishing boat crammed with migrants had also just departed from Tobruk – an estimated 646 migrants died after it capsized and shipwrecked off the Greek coast of Pylos in June 2023. More than 500 people remain missing. The Greek Coast Guard has denied allegations that it did not take sufficient action to save the lives of those in the water.

After the Pylos shipwreck, various agents in eastern Libya were feeling more on edge than usual.

“So we kept waiting and waiting. They were also scared it would happen,” Murad said.

According to Murad, government actors and militia play an active role in smuggler-led migrant boats departing from Libya’s eastern coast.

“You have a very big ship with a very big amount of people in it, it’s easily spotted, and yet magically, no one spots them,” Murad said, referring to migrant boats which depart from the eastern coast.

“The people who we used to meet and they used to protect us, they were all military. The one who protected us, who secured our movement between cities, I think was a captain in the army or navy in the east,” Murad said. “The people who took care of us, watched over us in certain cities, were actually working in the illegal migration office. They were part of that. So they were supposed to catch us, that’s their job. But instead they took care of us, so the people in charge of stopping the migration were facilitating the smuggling…”

Due to the June 2023 Pylos disaster, everyone from the smugglers to local authorities felt under pressure. Murad said he and scores of other hopeful migrants waited for the rest of June, July and August.

“Eventually, the smugglers came to us and say it’s not clear if there is ever going to be a trip again from the east. What do you think about the west?”

Murad feared western Libya, run by the Western-backed Tripoli government. “I didn’t want to go there because the boats are very dangerous, crowed, small wooden boats. It was a scary idea.” But Murad felt he had no other option at that point, so he decided to head west with eight of his friends. 

Detention in Libya

The group made it past Tripoli in western Libya before they were stopped at a checkpoint.

“They just looked at us and asked, are you Syrians?” Murad recalled. They were put into a police car and had their passports and personal items taken away, he said.

“The allegation was that we entered Libya illegally, which is not true because we came through an airport and we wanted to get out of Libya legally. We didn’t even have a chance to talk…prosecution gave us a court date. We go to prison for five days in Libya.”

Murad and his friends stayed in detention, which he described as being under the authority of the court and detaining both Libyan citizens and migrants.

Unlike many others, Murad said he did not suffer from abuse in Libyan detention. 

“For me, it was good. Well, when we say good, we’re not talking about European standards. When we say good, there weren’t any beatings,” Murad said, adding that he received three meals a day, and that the detention center had natural sunlight.

But “cell phones are not allowed. A lot of people inside have their phones – that is accomplished by a bribe. Also, you’re not allowed to have money inside. So there is a small supermarket, and someone outside pays them – so basically acts like your account,” Murad explained. That someone who runs errands and makes external payments on behalf of the migrant must ultimately be paid back.

After five days in detention, Murad was released. “One of the people who worked under the investigator called a lawyer, and later the allegations were dropped,” Murad said. “She managed to get us out, you can’t arrest someone just because you think they’re doing it. The court date was 24 September.” But when Murad and his friends got out of Libyan detention, with no money or possessions left, they called the smuggler who sent them to what Murad described as a farm. “They basically left us there.” 

Slavery, drug abuse on smuggler-operated ‘farms’

Three months passed, and Murad tried to adapt to life on the farm – operated by a man who was locally known as the smuggler kingpin, mafia and drug lord.

Murad described the property as a small half-built house without doors, windows or proper facilities.

“It was like a farm, but for migrants. It belongs to the smuggler,” Murad described, adding that at one point there were a total of 200 other migrants.

“This smuggler is very big and he controls all of Sabratha. I don’t think he gets most of his wealth from the smuggling business, he had his wealth before. I think the smuggling is just an extra,” Murad explained. “He is not only heavily involved in people trafficking, but also I think in drugs because all of his henchmen use drugs heavily and they have access to a lot of guns and a lot of drugs. I’ve seen coke, I’ve seen heroin, I’ve seen many, many pills. I’ve seen it all. He actually used to sell those things to the people who wanted to go out [of the farm].”

The original smuggler from Syria informed Murad he had been scammed and that he had ran out of money to help Murad leave the hideout. So he instructed Murad to wait until he could pay off the Libyan smuggler.

Migrants who can’t pay smugglers can be held hostage or forced to work until a payment is made, Murad explained.

“Forced force, slavery… happens a lot. They broke sticks on a lot of people’s backs, that’s how hard they hit.”

According to Murad, overcrowding on the smuggler-owned farm often fueled aggression among the guards. If migrants littered and ignored requests to clean up, guards would become even more infuriated.

But Murad said he got along with the farm guards.

“We became friends with them, but there was some red lines that we don’t cross with them. So as long as we understand that, nothing bad will happen.”

At one point Murad was moved to the smuggler kingpin’s main house. “In his main house he actually builds the boats [for the Mediterranean crossing], so we used to watch the carpenters come and build,” Murad recounted.

The role of people smuggling ‘insurance officers’

After Murad’s original smuggler from Syria continuously failed to obtain the money needed for a Mediterranean Sea crossing, Murad said he couldn’t take it anymore. So, he managed to obtain 4,000 dollars from whom he described as his “insurance officer” back in Syria.

Imagine “you’re a smuggler and I’m a traveler,” Murad began. “I can’t trust you by giving you the money [for a sea crossing], you can’t trust me to pay you after I arrive [in Europe]. So we need a third party for guarantees – an insurance officer.” Most so-called insurance officers who operate in the smuggling industry for Syrians are based in Syria, but some are also based in Libya, Murad explained. Because it was taking longer than initially agreed upon for Murad to be transported to Europe, he received some money from his insurance officer and was relocated to another accommodation in Libya.

“Luckily, he was very, very good to us. He put us in a very nice apartment, air conditioning, food, water, everything we needed,” Murad recalled. Awaiting an opportunity for a sea crossing took “a bit of time” with this smuggler due to months-long tensions between the Libyan navy and militias.

“It was crazy. A lot of [irregular migrant] boats got out, but not from this guy, because he really cares for his reputation. So he doesn’t get any trip out unless he knows that it’s gonna arrive [in Europe],” Murad explained.

From Libya to Italy to the Netherlands

When the call finally came, Murad was instructed to get ready to return to Sabratha for a sea crossing. He was surprised that smugglers returned him to the exact same farm he had previously stayed at and was greeted by his Syrian smuggler.

“He says, I’m sorry I couldn’t get you out, about the money, you’ll get it back, blah, blah, blah.”

After five days back at the smuggler farm, Murad is put on a double-decked wooden boat with 134 others. On February 5, he is rescued by the Geo Barents search and rescue ship and brought to Ravenna, Italy – seven months later than promised by his smuggler.

Up until his rescue, Murad said he had spent around 12,000 dollars in total since departing from Turkey. He said he was reimbursed the money he spent on his earlier attempt to reach Greece from the “insurance officer.”

“All I want now is just to rest a little bit, have a good meal, take a shower and sleep on a bed,” Murad told InfoMigrants on his way to Italy. “I miss drinking water out of the glass, it’s always this big, ten-liter plastic bottle that you have to carry.”

When Murad reached Italy five days later, he said he was thrilled to finally be able to drink water from a glass. Though he has already registered as an asylum seeker in Italy, the young man hopes to settle in the Netherlands. If he makes it, there is still a risk under the EU’s Dublin Regulation that he could be sent back to Italy, where he has registered his fingerprints. Nevertheless, Murad remains optimistic – he has already come this far.

Murad said he must now wait in the migrant reception center in Italy until smugglers can deposit money in a clandestine cash drop-off point so that he can continue his journey to the Netherlands.

*This series is based on an investigation conducted between February and May 2024 across Germany, Italy, and the Central Mediterranean. The investigation included a period on board the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) search and rescue ship, the Geo Barents, from January 30 to February 10. InfoMigrants was unable to independently verify the personal testimonies provided by migrant individuals.