DAILYEXPRESS Migrant smugglers in the Mediterranean are making as much as £400,000 per boat

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Makeshift rafts, ramshackle boats and rubber vessels packed with people from all over Africa are being rescued from the sea every day. The European Union insists it is doing all it can to prevent crossings. Under the Malta Declaration signed early in 2017, the bloc agreed to pay the Libyan coastguard to stop boats launching from the beaches.

I want to go to Switzerland with my family Eritrean mother-of-one

However, £78million later and after weeks of training, desperate men, women and children hoping to seek asylum in Europe are still making they way towards Italy. Most tell harrowing tales of life in Libya, from being sold on an active slave market to being raped and beaten. Following dramatic rescues this week by Spanish non-governmental organisation GO Proactiva Open Arms, many refugees revealed they have sold everything they own to fund their trip.

DAILYEXPRESS Makeshift rafts, ramshackle boats and rubber vessels are packed with people

In just one day a flimsy rubber boat, which held 128 people, was rescued by the charity, followed by a wooden ship which held 261. In the rubber boat, migrants paid up to £850 each, while in the wooden vessel the price of a space was up to £1,700. Among the African nationals onboard was an Eritrean mother-of-one.

DAILYEXPRESS People are rescued all over Africa from the sea every day

The 31-year-old, who cannot be named, is travelling with her husband and small child after fleeing their home. She was gang-raped by police officers in Sudan while her husband was held at gunpoint in a horrifying attack which left her pregnant. Four women were robbed of all their jewellery and possessions while more than a dozen men sexually abused them at the side of the road.

Migrants Rescued in the Mediterranean Tue, January 3, 2017 Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms rescue all 112 on aboard, including two pregnant women and five children, as it drifts out of control in the central Mediterranean Sea, some 36 nautical miles off the Libyan coast January 2, 2017 Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 12 Migrants try to reach a rescue craft from their overcrowded raft, as lifeguards from the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms rescue all 112 on aboard

She said: "I want to go to Switzerland with my family. "I want to have a good life. Now I have a baby which is not my husband's." A Nigerian national named Paul, 25, told Express.co.uk about the active slave market in Libya, where men are captured, tortured and traded. Often people who say they will help them find work sell them on to Arab families as slaves, he claimed.

DAILYEXPRESS Most of the people tell harrowing tales of life in Libya

Paul said: "If you are African there are people there who will kidnap you. Your life is worth nothing. "They can steal everything you have. "Women are forced into prostitution. They force them, they beat them, they injure them."

However, when people are able to escape torture they are forced to find a way to pay smugglers. Now, the evil business is so large in Libya there are people offering loans for passage to Europe which can be paid back at "four times" what was borrowed. Another man, 30-year-old Edwin, said: "The smugglers are from different places and 80 per cent of them are really bad.

DAILYEXPRESS Many refugees revealed they have sold everything they own to fund their trip