In an appalling incident last Wednesday, human traffickers on the Mediterranean Sea deliberately rammed another boat with their own vessel. The boat, which carried over 500 migrants of Egyptian, Sudanese and Palestinian descent, capsized and sank into the waters off the coast of Malta.  There were only nine survivors, and at least a hundred children perished along with the other souls on board.  Though a criminal investigation is underway, it is highly unlikely any one will ever be brought to justice.

This incident bears many similarities to the deliberate sinking of the Dutch slave ship Leusden in 1738 that claimed the lives of the 700 slaves locked below deck. Like the recent sinking, this crime went largely unnoticed by the majority of society and the international slave trade continued for another century.  According to one historian, the sinking of Leusden “wasn’t seen as important. It was a large loss in terms of money, but no one seemed to mind that it was a large loss in human lives.” It almost goes without saying that human trafficking is a modern form of slavery. The migrants aboard the small boat and the slaves aboard the Leusden were both being treated as commodities. They were being used for profit by people who had no respect for the dignity as human persons. The issue of human trafficking, which so often ends in tragedy, must be given more priority by the international community. There is a prevailing attitude, especially in America, that the post-modern era is free of barbarity, that we are better people than those who engaged in horrors like the slave trade. I would argue that such barbarity manifests itself more quietly now, but is no less prominent. Yes, the African slave trade has disappeared, but it has been replaced with a system of human trafficking that is almost as vicious.

As of September, an estimated  130,000 migrants have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea this year alone – more than double the number of migrants in all of 2013. The recent tragedies in the Mediterranean bring the total number of migrant deaths in 2014 to almost three thousand, four times the total of migrant deaths in 2013. This enormous increase is the result of growing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. Human traffickers exploit power vacuums and civil strife in nations like Libya and Somalia. Most migrants are poor and largely uneducated, making them vulnerable targets for traffickers who wish to profit off the suffering of others. People suffering economic hardships must look for low-cost options, many of which are highly unsafe. Though it is only a fraction of overall migrant smuggling around the world, smuggling by sea is cheap but deadly. Migrant smuggling is often carried out by criminal groups and networks who earn high profits while the migrants themselves suffer the consequences. In a process that again resembles the slave trade, migrants are conducted along sea routes.

The most important thing we can do for the victims of human trafficking – aside from prayer – is to raise awareness of the problem.  Human trafficking and migrant smuggling are issues that need to be given priority by the international community. It is not something that should be left to the NGOs and charities of the world, but should belong to the state as well. Although migrant smuggling and human trafficking are crimes under international law, law enforcement alone is not the solution. A truly pro-life, pro-person strategy must address the root cause of migration by sea.  In so far that it is possible, such a policy must stop human trafficking by mitigating the conditions which cause mass migration in the first place. This is not an easy issue, and the surge of anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe – as demonstrated by the results of the 2014 European Parliamentary elections – adds political pressure to state and regional cooperation on migration policy. I do not deny that here are legitimate political and social problems posed by  immigration. However, the exploitation of migrants and the increasing number of migrant deaths cannot simply be ignored because it is politically difficult. These difficulties must be approached responsibly and in a manner which is befitting the intrinsic dignity of the human person, something so egregiously harmed by human trafficking.