Tripoli Gargaresh raids: „Why was the operation mounted?“ – Brookings

The timing of the operation may lie in the pandemic’s impact on the economy and migration patterns in sub-Saharan Africa. While COVID-19 may have increased the desire to migrate, it also brought decreasing resources to do so and additional fears. Thus, sea departures to Europe of sub-Saharan Africans declined even as sea departures of North Africans increased. With the flow of sub-Saharan Africans diminished—the main victims of the detention centers and enslavement—the  thousands detained in Gargaresh will allow militias to extort more funds, forced labor, and forced prostitution.