Date: Wednesday, 19 November 2025
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) is demanding a 20-year prison sentence for a 42-year-old Eritrean man charged with human trafficking of the most horrific nature. According to the OM, the suspect played a prominent role in an international organization involved in migration crime. During his trial in the Overijssel District Court, witnesses described how he locked them up and abused them during their journey to Europe in Libya. Their accounts are chilling, detailing torture, starvation, and rape.
You hear that a lot can happen in the Sahara. You know you can drown in the sea. You know that women can be raped in Libya. You know that men are tortured in Libya. You know that beforehand. But you have a goal and you want to reach it, and you think: Maybe I'll survive this, whatever might happen, and you don't think about it. You just want to continue your journey.
The witness testifies in what may be the largest human trafficking case ever heard in the Netherlands. The witness recounts his advance knowledge of the journey he was about to make from Eritrea to Europe. Migrants must cross Libya, a vast desert country, if they want to reach Europe by sea. It's a lawless country, ruled by militias and human traffickers. Yet, many people take the risk and travel this perilous Central Mediterranean Route. Among them are many refugees from Eritrea, a dictatorship where human rights violations are commonplace.
"They are thus forced into the hands of human traffickers and forced to pay large sums of money to reach Europe, often via dangerous routes and means of transport. Women, men, and children drown at sea, even if they are among the 'lucky' ones to reach it," prosecutors said Wednesday in the Zwolle courtroom.
The question of why this case is being heard in the Netherlands was also answered. The Public Prosecution Service believes the facts are so serious that no country can afford to do nothing, and because the Netherlands is directly involved in the crimes. For example, family members of smuggled victims in the Netherlands are being extorted. They are forced to pay for their family members' onward travel to the Netherlands through cash transfers, which are then transferred to the smugglers via hawala banking.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the criminal organization's business model is also directly linked to the systematic abuse in the Libyan camps. After all, there's no smuggling without payments, no payments without extortion, no extortion without violence. Family members, friends, and acquaintances in Europe are pressured to pay for the smuggling of their loved ones by abusing them live over the phone. Witnesses experience almost all of this:
When you're being beaten, even the sound of the whip is heard on the phone. You unconsciously start screaming. You'll say whatever they want. You tell your family, 'You have to pay for me, I'm being beaten, I'm having a hard time.' They can hear the pain on the phone, too.
Only when payment has been made are they allowed to travel on to the next camp or by sea to Europe. "The consequences of human smuggling are also manifesting themselves in the Netherlands, because after entering the Schengen Area, a migrant has access to all its associated countries. In doing so, the criminal organization also undermines Dutch asylum policy ," the officers said.
In the overcrowded Libyan camps, there is hardly any water or food, and poor hygiene leads to diseases and infections. Many testimonies concern the plight of women, who are sexually abused and raped. Witnesses describe the suspect, W., as the most brutal of all the smugglers on the route.
W. told her, "You're going to pay for the third time, but I'm also going to rape you." He said this in Arabic... then the horn honked, and she was taken away.
Regarding a woman who refuses to go with the suspected human trafficker, another states:
They beat her with electric shocks and water hoses. Finally , they tied her hands and feet and forced her to sit in the sun all day. Another girl also beat W. and tied her hands and feet because, according to W., she was also planning to escape. It turned out she was six months pregnant and had miscarried. W. just sat there laughing and humiliating her. She was tied up like this for three days.
Many refugees describe how people around them are dying from hunger, disease, and the consequences of abuse. Their lawyers describe these stories as " stories that seem like they're pulled from a horror script, but are actually real for their clients." During the trial, four of them exercised their right to speak.
The man on trial denies being the smuggler in question. He invoked his right to remain silent during the trial. However, witnesses identified him as the man who assaulted them with water hoses and blackmailed their relatives. Based on information from the suspect's Facebook accounts, witnesses' identification of him in photos (in which he partially recognizes himself), and the results of facial comparisons by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (KMar) and the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI), the Public Prosecution Service has concluded that the suspect is indeed the same person.
The Public Prosecution Service believes it can be legally and convincingly proven that the suspect led a criminal organization with the intent to commit the crimes of human trafficking, hostage-taking, extortion, violent crimes, and sexual offenses. For him, only the maximum sentence applicable to these types of crimes is appropriate:
He deprived the victims of their freedom and dignity. He held them in appalling conditions, starved them, tortured them, and denied them essential medical care. He exposed them to life-threatening situations in the desert, in camps, and in overcrowded, old, and leaky boats at sea, without food, fuel, or engines. Tens of thousands of people have not survived their flight on the Central Mediterranean Route in recent years.
The Pearce investigation file, conducted by the National Public Prosecutor's Office in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (KMar), comprises over 30,000 pages and focuses on the period 2014-2019. The investigation began in 2018 and is being closely collaborated with the Italian authorities within a Joint Investigation Team. Furthermore, information has been shared by the ICC for the investigation. In addition to approximately 200 witness statements, evidence is provided by phone records, recorded conversations, satellite photos, publicly available data, and financial transactions.
A total of seven suspects have been charged in this case. The man currently on trial was extradited from Ethiopia in October 2022, where he was convicted of human trafficking within Africa. A second main suspect is expected to be extradited soon from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The remaining five individuals charged are alleged to be involved in the financial transactions and will stand trial next year.
