Photo: Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have been forcing upwards of 3,000 migrants a day from their homes. These desperate refugees often seek new lives in Western Europe, traveling by both land and sea. The most dangerous route is across the Mediterranean from northern Africa to Italy and Greece. We have posted a dozen times about the tragedy that has awaited too many of these migrants in overloaded boats and ships. The tragedies only continue.  Just last Thursday, two overloaded refugee boats, carrying an estimated 500 people, sank off Libya. Roughly 200 are missing and feared drowned. The UN says estimates that 2,400 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year.  In 2014, over 3,400 died attempting to make the crossing.

European governments’ response to the crisis have been confused and often contradictory. Tragedy at sea is also too often easily ignored. This week the tragedy arrived closer to home, when the bodies of 71 migrants, including four children, were found dead locked in the back of a truck along an Austrian highway.  The deaths demonstrate that human trafficking by land can be as deadly as be sea. Will the grim discovery in the Austrian truck spur effective action where the drowning migrants in the Mediterranean has not? Only time will tell.

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.