Video: Photographing Libya’s slaves

INSTEAD of being a place of transit for migrants on their way to Europe, Libya has become a trafficking market where people are bought and sold on a daily basis for as little as $200.

Valeria Cardi interviewed photojournalist Narciso Contreras, recipient of the 7th Carmignac Photojournalism Award, on his experience photographing this unfolding humanitarian crisis.

Six years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is still a lawless state where armed groups compete for land and resources and large weapons and people-smuggling networks operate with impunity.

“We got contacts with smugglers in the south, with militias in the north – key characters that gave us access to very sensitive information. […] You’re taken by hand by these characters, so you have to move very carefully,” Contreras said. – Thomson Reuters Foundation