A Libya been-to, MacDonald Kwabena Bonsu Simpson, has detailed his experiences from the advent of slavery in Libya where he sojourned for a long time, following the overthrow of Gadafi and the degeneration of that country into a failed State.
According to him, Ghanaians are actively involved in the rogue trade in humans, as they work as snitches for Libyan slave raiders and criminals who act on tips-off from them to swoop on fellow Ghanaians for sale.
The set-ups, he said, also includes Ghanaians serving as informants for Libyan criminal gangs within Ghanaians settlements so that the criminals can target Ghanaians who have money on them to rob.
Consequently, he says that Ghanaians in Libya have become suspicious of one another, with some murdering their fellow Ghanaians in the war-torn North African country.
Mr. Kwabena Bonsu Simpson has detailed his experiences in a book, “Cemetery Without Graves.”
In a radio interview monitored by WhatsUp News, he reveals that many Ghanaians wanting to return to Ghana are trapped in Libya at the moment because the country’s airport is closed.
Under the circumstance, anybody who insists on fleeing ongoing factional war in the North African country has no choice but to make a detour through Tunis, Tunisia. To get to Tunis, however, one has to transit Misrata and this makes the journey very treacherous because, there are several checkpoints that whoever is traveling must surmount.
Unfortunately, some of the checkpoints are not mounted by the Police and military but by militias who may seize travelers and sell them into slavery or kill them after they have robbed them of their money.
According to the author, Libya has become so precarious that even though he has a four bedroom apartment there, and anytime he arrives there his boss sends a car to pick him up, he is not considering returning to that country anytime soon.
Most of the militias are upstart zealots without any training and so they often misfire guns and missiles leading to accidental killings from stray bullet.
He recalls how sometime ago, a stray missile hit a migration center and 17 people including 3 Ghanaians were killed.
The situation has made it more appealing for Ghanaians trapped there to snitch on fellow Ghanaians to the Libyan rogues. MacDonald Kwabena Simpson narrates how a Ghanaian lady traveling from Saba to Tripoli, was picked on by militias and asked to pay 10,000 Libyan dinar. The lady said she did not have the money but the militias insisted she had it and searched her private part where she had hidden US$800.
According to Mr. Simpson, it later emerged that a Ghanaian who knew her had snitched on her to the Libyans.
In spite of the precariousness of the situation in Libya, he laments that many Ghanaians, especially those in the Bono and Ahafo towns of Nkoranza, Techiman and Berekum are eagerly traveling to the North African country for greener pastures.