Twenty-eight adults and seven children were discovered in a container on board a ship that had sailed from Zeebrugge in Belgium and arrived at Tilbury Docks in Essex, UK, at 6:00 am on Saturday. One of the stowaways died because of dehydration and hypothermia. The container’s human cargo would have gone undetected, as is the usual practice since not all containers arriving at the dock are checked forthwith. In that case, there would probably have been no survivors. It was the screaming and banging of those locked inside the container that drew the attention of workers at the dock. All of them have been taken to hospital. According to the preliminary investigations, the victims are Sikhs from Afghanistan. The complete credentials of the survivors will come to light once they are rehabilitated. The Essex Port Authority has been shocked to discover such a large contingent of illegal migrants. Former head of the UK Border Force Tony Smith said those inside the container were victims of international organised criminals. Anthony Steen, chairman of the Human Trafficking Foundation said: “It shows how desperate people are to improve their economic situation — how desperate they are to leave their own homes, and own countries, and hope to arrive in somewhere that’s more accommodating, more kind, and offering them a better quality of life.” While this could be a rare story of human trafficking to the UK, it is not new for countries surviving on the margins of the contemporary global order. The world has long narrowed down options for the lesser souls in countries where class differences, gender discrimination and religious bigotry have changed the complexion of human values. If these migrants do turn out to be Sikhs from Afghanistan, our worries regarding human apathy in less developed countries should double. In the throes of war and religious extremism, Afghanistan has become an epicentre of human casualties. For the global community the challenge is multi-fold. While providing for a system to stop human trafficking, it has to develop a regime where free movement of labour and indigenous resource development can change the economic condition of the people of the less developed countries so that they do not have to die in containers to realise their dreams of a better life. The relatively freer world we live in has provided anything but respect for a person’s dreams. Most people are compelled to live a life designed by others and in the ensuing tug of war, those really desperate to get out of the system but having meagre resources get trapped by unscrupulous elements. Human trafficking is one of the many offshoots of poverty and discrimination, making its victims vulnerable to exploitation by the promise of a life that at least provides two decent meals and a comfortable life to the family back home. *