The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is reporting a disturbing new trend in people smuggling in Libya – migrants being bought and sold as slaves.

Libya is a focal point for migrants hoping to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, but the IOM says more and more migrants, without identity papers and with no more money to pay smugglers, are being openly sold into slavery.

Migrants interviewed by the IOM report being prevented by people smugglers from reaching the Libyan coast, and instead being taken to town squares or parking lots, where they are then sold as slaves.

They are held in warehouses or abandoned buildings, and forced to work.

Some migrants said they were beaten daily, and made to call their families to demand ransom money.

IOM staff who managed to gain access to some detention centres found evidence of systematic malnutrition, sexual abuse, and even murder.

The emergence of slave markets is, the IOM says, a disturbing new trend in the already dire situation for migrants in Libya.