Slaves are usually tortured while their captors demand a ransom from their families over the phone. Women are often raped by their “buyers” LUC GNAGO/REUTERS

African migrants desperate to reach Europe are being sold as slaves in Libya for as little as $200, according to the UN migration agency, which says that men are tortured and women raped by their “buyers”.

The traffickers promise them passage but sell them at slave markets instead. The sales take place in garages or squares in Sabha, a smuggling hub in the south of the country, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said. The going rate is between $200 and $500 per person.

The buyers usually torture their slaves while on the telephone to their families to encourage them to pay hefty ransoms. One Senegalese man, identified only as SC in the IOM report, said that when his family was unable to pay the…