Pointing the finger of blame at the wrong (and easy) target Recent events that have seen 39 people die in a lorry in the United Kingdom prompted the debate on a hotly contested topic: human trafficking and modern slavery. In a recent interview to the Times, the independent anti-slavery commissioner called for a new approach to this abhorrent crime. What happened in Essex was yet another human tragedy that quickly grabs the news headlines. However, it is also a tragedy that stays there for only a few days. We, the public, immediately look into the actors that are closely associated with or involved in the act. We focus on perpetrators (in this case, human smugglers) and victims. We want justice for the victims. We want punishment for those we deem so inhumane that we think we should lock them in and throw away the key. We streamline the complex world of poverty, abuse, exploitation, vulnerability, hopelessness and despair into a simple dichotomy of a good and a ba...
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