The voyage of the MV Etireno with its cargo of child slaves has aroused the curiosity and the compassion of many comfortable Europeans. It has brought attention to the growing practice of slavery not only in Africa but in also in the very heart of Europe.
In the recent Human Trafficking series, this newspaper's team of foreign correspondents reported on women and children being sold into slavery in Belgium, the country which hosts the central administration of the European Union; in Italy where a safe haven has been set up for young women from the East who have been sold into slavery; and even in Sweden where civil liberties have long been jealously guarded.
According to United Nations estimates, there are now approximately 200,000 child slaves in West Africa. Many young girls from rural areas are sent to work as maids with well-off families in the cities. A large proportion of these are sexually abused. Others are shipped along the coast to work long, grinding hours in the cocoa plantations of Gabon and Cote d'Ivoire and the Etireno's human cargo would seem to fall into this category.
Most of the slaves sent to these plantations are under 12 years old. They provide the ideal labour for their exploiting task masters. Children work hard. They do what they are told. They are easily frightened into submission. Cotonou in Benin, where the Etireno took on its cargo of child slaves, was a major port in the slave trade in centuries past. In those days, the powerful white colonial nations viciously exploited the Africans they stole from their homelands.
Now Africans themselves are doing the exploitation but richer countries have a responsibility too. Rich countries are getting richer and poor countries poorer. There is some evidence that rich countries are amassing great wealth as a result of poor countries becoming more impoverished. The problem of Third World debt is one which rich nations have yet to confront with any real dedication.
It can be convenient to claim that Africa - with its abject poverty, its endemic corruption and frequently, its political despotism - is beyond help. But help is what the scores of children on the Etireno and the tens of thousands of child slaves in West Africa desperately need.
Significantly, their parents have parted with them because of the promise that they will be educated. Education means gainful employment and the possibility that cash remittances will be sent home. It is not all that long ago since this type of situation played a significant role in the economy of this state. There are signs too, that the situation is getting worse. African countries have been joined in their poverty by others, particularly in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The annual per capita GDP of two former Soviet republics, Georgia and Moldova, is low even by African standards.
The possibilities for even further callous exploitation of people from these impoverished regions are increasing and rich countries, including this state, have a duty to help end the poverty which is the root cause of the problem.