People smuggling

Libya’s hub for migrant smuggling empties after controlling militia is ousted

For nearly two years, this ancient, beachfront city, famed for its Roman ruins, was one of North Africa’s largest smuggling hubs, a gateway for tens of thousands of migrants seeking better futures in Europe. Now, there are none on the beaches where hundreds of rickety boats once ferried them to Italy illegally, none in the migrant detention centre where they ended up when an attempt failed.

At the five-star West Taleel resort, the white, two-storey villas once housed as many as 3,000 migrants at a time waiting to set sail. Their traffickers had erected sand dunes along the beach to hide them from Libyan coast guard patrols and curious swimmers.

The resort is now empty, as are the smugglers’ other safe houses.

Ferocious street battles among rival armed groups erupted this fall, ultimately driving out the young warlord Ahmed Dabbashi, whose militia ran the trade in migrants. The victors then expelled the migrants.

A rare visit by a reporter to Sabratha in December revealed how the massive trafficking of Africans, which has roiled European countries and raised concerns about widespread abuses of the migrants, is tied up with Libya’s internal power struggles. The ebb and flow of migration reflect the shifting fortunes of the city’s civil war, emblematic of the strife afflicting Libya since the Arab Spring.