Have They Checked Their Travel Insurance?

I have been slow to comment
on the modern 'migrant problem',
just as I have been slow to reflect
on the causes of said migration; war
famine, disease, and global warming.

But this much I will observe,
when slavery was an accepted trade
the ships that the slaves
were trafficked in were far safer
than the flimsy rubber dinghies
that today's migrants are given
to take to the English channel with,
to get as far from the famines, wars,
and diseases that bedevil their once safe,
now unstable, 'home countries' as they can.

Also slave owners had to buy
insurance for their captive cargo,
c.f. The Zong Massacre.Whereas
modern, more voluntary, migrants
have to travel by faith alone,
through hostile environments
that are far nearer being like
that they seek to escape from
than anyone would want to know.

At that rate buying insurance
for making sure of your profits,
whether your cargo lives or dies,
looks like sure proof of hubris,
and being well fitted for Hell
when you are ferried to the next life.