Tribal conflict and militia rule continue to be the largest impediments to ending Libya’s smuggling business. Though 252 Nigerian immigrants were repatriated from Libya to their home country on Jan. 9 and a regional African delegation visited detention centers to accelerate deportations from Libya, illegal immigration combined with a lack of rule of law continues to make the trade of Africans a profitable business in Libya.

Recently, the treatment of African migrants, most of whom are sub-Saharan, caught international attention, but the slave trade has been a daily reality for Africans in Libya for over four years, since the start of the second civil war in 2014, when Libya became a route for migrants to reach Europe. “The closing of the route from Libya into Italy in August had no impact on the magnitude or severity of the slave trade. It has been going on for a long time,” Mac K B Simpson, a Ghanaian expert on migration and human trafficking based in Tripoli, told Al-Monitor.

It is almost impossible for journalists to access areas where the slave trade is taking place in the northwestern and southern regions of Libya. The danger is too great. But Simpson was able to share the story of James Kwarteng, a 37-year-old Ghanaian migrant who was abducted from the house where he lived with other migrants in the northwestern coastal city of Sabratha by rogue militias, taken to an unknown location and ordered to pay 10,000 Libyan dinars ($7,500) for his release.

Kwarteng had been working as a mason in perilous conditions to fund his journey to Italy. When he boldly told his abductors he didn’t have that kind of money, the drunk men shot him in the hand, beat him and left him to die. His hand was untreated for weeks and was left badly damaged.