Human trafficking has gone from a niche business to a huge – and hugely profitable – industry since Gaddafi’s fall in 2011
With a joint of hashish in one hand and a can of Red Bull in the other, one of Libya’s most successful people smugglers reclines in his apartment, the rooms strewn with bowls of chocolates, and explains the rationale behind his business. „I am not a criminal,“ he says. „I provide a service.“
In his 30s, the smuggler, wearing a gold medallion over a white T-shirt, declines to be named, but is happy to sketch out details of what he describes as a successful, legitimate business: the smuggling of those who can afford it into Europe.