Boy who went to Libya aged 16 caught up in detention

A Ghanaian family is pleading with government to help bring back their son who went to Libya aged 16 years hoping to cross into Europe but is now in the hands of rebels.

Issaka Abdul Mumin called from Libya in 2013 to tell his family of his adventure to find better living conditions across the Mediterranean sea.

"We all didn't know how he got there", his brother, Tufic Abdul Mumin, told Joy News' Araba Koomsom.

The war had just began in Libya when he called and Libya is now a country of two governments since the fall of their leader Muammar Mohammed Gaddafi in 2011.

There is the Islamist-dominated National Salvation government in Tripoli, and an internationally-recognized parliament based in Tobruk, in the east.

Effectively, none of these governments are able to govern, leading to a booming trade in human trafficking and as the world has found out – slave trade.

Government and the International Organisation for Migration facilitated the return of 127 illegal Ghanaian migrants last week.

Issaka Abdul Mumin, now 21 years old, is still in Libya.

There has been no communication with his family since 2013 until he contacted his brother, not from Europe but from a detention center where severe abuses has led to deaths.

His brother begged for money to secure his release after he was captured in rebel-held territory.

Issaka Mumin also asked for additional money to help him accomplish a dream he is yet to give up despite tragic deaths recorded in crossing the Mediterranean sea.

He said he needed 72,000 but "I don't know whether in Libyan currency", his brother said.

Issaka Mumin revealed he was in a camp with another Ghanaian, Baba who hails from Bawku in the Upper East region.

There has been no communication since the two brothers spoke and all calls to the phone number goes unanswered.  

"I want my brother to come back home…there is no way he can travel on he boat and continue. He will die"

Last week Foreign Affairs Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey informed Parliament her outfit had not been able to verify reports that some Ghanaians were being traded off as slaves.

But speaking at a forum on Migration organized by JOYNEWS and DW in Accra last Thursday, Ghanaian born English lecturer in Libya McDonald Simpson said government got it wrong.

"The Ghana representative went to just one camp. But when you go to the Southern part of Libya, there are 150 Ghanaians trapped and ready to be sold"