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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.