Slaves in Libya used for organ trade – Legal practitioner reveals

The widely condemned slavery in Libya goes beyond the sale of human beings as some ‘slave masters’ engage in organ trade, a private legal practitioner reveals.

Organ trade is the trade of human organs, tissues or other body parts for the purpose of transplantation.

According to Bobby Banson, he has seen videos, where at least one person caught up in the slavery alleged that body parts of his colleagues were harvested and sold abroad.

“One of the persons I heard, said the truth is that they are not sold to go and work, but their human parts are harvested… kidney, liver are in high demand in these areas.

He said their parts are harvested because you can’t harvest a dead person’s parts.

“They are put on some [drugs] and their parts are harvested and resold.

So that is actually what is happening, and that is a crime against humanity,” Bobby Banson disclosed on TV3’s New Day on Saturday.

The legal practitioner demanded that the African Union set up an ad-hoc court to try individuals behind this slavery.

The legal practitioner was also worried that Ghanaians who were brought from Libya in the wake of the dehumanizing treatment were not screened.

Finding out how they got to Libya, what they have been doing there and what happens to them as they return to Ghana among others should be information authorities ought to solicit from them, he concurred with co-panellists who shared this position.

“If we don’t take care, some of them would be armed robbers, petty thieves or carry diseases,” he warned.

Bobby Banson suggested that returnees are kept at a place, say the Hajj Village in Accra, for days so that psychologists and other experts can debrief them before they are integrated.

Ghanaians who returned from Libya have been recounting harrowing incidents they encountered back in Libya.

A total of 127 Ghanaians including children arrived in Ghana on Wednesday from Libya, where they had been put under detention for various offences.

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres who condemned the “appalling acts” ordered that the slave trade is investigated by competent authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.