THE OUTLAW OCEAN PODCAST - A PLACE “WORSE THAN HELL” (LIBYA PT.2)

The Outlaw Ocean is a riveting anthology podcast that explores the most lawless place on earth — the vast unpoliceable ocean.

In season two, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Ian Urbina sheds light on the secretive Libyan prisons swallowing up seafaring migrants; flagrant human rights abuses in China’s massive off-shore fleet; the horrors of a shrimp processing plant in India; and the wild story of a modern-day James Bond — if he were a ship repo man.

On episode 2:

The Outlaw Ocean team investigates the grim reality faced by migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. The Libyan Coast Guard, acting on behalf of the European Union, intercepts these individuals and detains them in clandestine prisons where they endure extortion, abuse, and even death. The series focuses on the tragic case of Aliou Candé, a young farmer and father from Guinea-Bissau, whose death draws the team into conflict with Libya's brutal and oppressive regime. We take you inside the walls of one of these perilous prisons, exposing a lawless system where forgotten migrants languish.

Highlights:

● The EU has claimed they play no role in this migrant crisis, even as they provide boats, buses, petrol — even the tablets the Libyans use to count up their captives.

● Once captured and counted, those migrants are often held in a network of secretive prisons run by competing militias, where exploitation, abuse, and death are common. They are also routinely “rented” as everything from farm labour to soldiers in battle.

● Aliou Candé was sent to a prison, where he died at the hands of prison guards, while trying to protect himself from a melee. “I’m not going to fight. I’m the hope of my entire family.”

Listen to Episode 2 here:

A PLACE “WORSE THAN HELL” (LIBYA PT.2)