Kids go free: How to advertise a Libyan people trafficking business

If you know where to look on social media in Arabic, it is not difficult to find the traffickers.

In fact, many of those offering a new life in Europe are openly touting for business: "With the beginning of the new season we have a range of journeys on offer" writes one site. "Turkey-Libya-Italy, $3,800. Algeria-Libya-Italy, $2,500. Sudan-Libya-Italy, $2,500." 

Pages like these have the look and feel of glossy travel brochures, but the reality of their services can be deadly. More than 1,700 people have drowned in this year alone making the crossing from Africa to Europe, most of them setting out from Libya.

The trade is also big business. An estimated 200,000 people attempted the crossing last year, backed by a network of traffickers stretching across Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

BBC journalists Daniel Adamson and Mamdouh Akbiek gained insight into this world when they directly contacted one of those traffickers. "Abdel Aziz" (not his real name) is a Libyan man running a Facebook page offering an array of routes into Europe by boat from the port of Zawara. He also claimed to able to help people reach Libya from across sub-Saharan African and the Middle East.

He told Adamson that he has "agents in almost every Arab state," and to has "legal and illegal ways to get [anyone] into the country." His claims could not be verified.

Abdul Aziz is believed to be one of hundreds of people smugglers who have taken advantage of the collapse of the law and order in Libya to offer their services. Competition online between them can be fierce. Some smugglers are now advertising special offers such as free tickets for children, or discounts for children under 10.

Different routes with different levels of risk attract different fees. Each web page is also accompanied with tempting photoshopped images of cruise liners, aircraft and European passports.

Adamson and Akbiek did ask Aziz whether he felt any sense of moral responsibilty for those who have died en route to Europe. Aziz replied that his boats were safer than other traffickers, and that in any case the number of those who survive a crossing far outnumbers those who drown.