Evidence of people being sold in slave auctions near Tripoli

In a shocking and truly disturbing CNN report, CNN reporters travel to what appears to be a town or suburb near Tripoli and film a real-life slave auction taking place where sub-Saharan Africans are being sold for as little as $400 to buyers who want to use these people for building or farm work without pay and against their will.

Carrying concealed cameras into a property outside the capital of Tripoli last month, we witness a dozen people go "under the hammer" in the space of six or seven minutes.

"Does anybody need a digger? This is a digger, a big strong man, he'll dig," the salesman, dressed in camouflage gear, says. "What am I bid, what am I bid?"

Buyers raise their hands as the price rises, "500, 550, 600, 650 ..." Within minutes it is all over and the men, utterly resigned to their fate, are being handed over to their new "masters."

After the auction, we met two of the men who had been sold. They were so traumatized by what they'd been through that they could not speak, and so scared that they were suspicious of everyone they met.

Click here to watch the full video report.