According to the People Daily publication, in one common scenario, recruiters using WhatsApp or TikTok spark hope by offering job contracts or relocation, then hand over victims to brokers who move them across desert routes towards Libya or other transit hubs.

Once in the hands of traffickers, refugees are detained in makeshift camps or secret houses in desert regions. They are forced to call home — while being tortured or threatened — and families are told to pay thousands of dollars for their release. Xinhua News reports reveal that in Libya alone, authorities recently freed 263 migrants who had been held for ransom: the gang allegedly demanded $17,000 for Somali captives and $10,000 for Eritreans. A larger recent operation recorded violations affecting some 1,300 migrants, including extortion for release.

Police and prosecutors in Libya say they are cracking down on such rings. The country’s Attorney-General’s office described traffickers as running “illegal detention, torture, inhuman treatment, in order to extort money from their families” and announced multiple arrests and investigations. However, the scale of trafficking in the Sahara region remains difficult to quantify: the destabilised regions, ungoverned spaces and desert transit routes mean many cases go unreported.

For families of refugees, the stakes are painfully high — not simply the money demanded, but enduring trauma and uncertainty of release, safe passage or death in transit. Law-enforcement officials say they face a race against time to outflank traffickers who exploit the desert’s vastness and fragmentation of state control.