AROUND the globe, human-traffickers who are as morally bankrupt as Daesh (the so-called IS) terrorists, are treating people as mere goods and chattels, products to be smuggled around the world, while abusing, raping, robbing and enslaving them.

These merciless creatures are at work across many borders. However, in two particular countries, their barbarous treatment of men and women who have given all the money they and their families to be smuggled to a better, safer life, completely beggars belief.

In Thailand, smugglers who promised to channel desperate Rohingya refugees across the border into Malaysia, instead imprisoned their “passengers” in horrific jungle camps. They forced them to phone home to have friends and family raise ransoms for their release. And this was often not the end of this heartless kidnapping. Even when money had been paid, the Thai smugglers did not free their victims. Indeed, Thai police who last year bust one of the major trafficking rings, discovered scores of bodies in shallow forest graves. The criminals never intended to honor their deal and probably murdered the refugees even before the ransoms were raised by dirt-poor Rohingya communities.

But perhaps the most disgusting example of this cynical inhumanity was provided last week by the Libyan human traffickers. The circumstances are still not certain but there is clear evidence that a group of migrants sought to escape from the smugglers near the desert town of Bani Walid, a common staging post on the journey from across the Sahara to the Libyan coast. About 100 tried to make a break for it and the smugglers opened fire with automatic weapons. At least 15 refugees were killed and others injured. A number of these were then left behind to die as the smugglers’ convoy resumed its journey to the coast.

At least in Thailand, the authorities have acted, even unmasking officials who were bribed by the criminal gangs. But in anarchic Libya, the only law there is comes out of the barrel of a gun. These human traffickers have been acting with complete impunity, sure that there is no one, save a larger, more powerful militia, which can possibly challenge them.

The Americans and Europeans have been building up a case against the now-extremely wealthy Libyans who are running this cold-blooded racket. A few of the little men have been caught and some have been jailed in Italy. But the real organizers, who include some of Libya’s most prominent warlords and even a few politicians, are still free.

Last week a move was made at the UN to impose a travel ban and an asset freeze on six of these leading criminals. The move was blocked by Russia on the grounds that France, Germany, the Netherlands, UK and the United States, who were pushing for the action, had not produced clear evidence against these men nor identified the “reliable sources” cited.

It may be that the US and Europeans are reluctant to reveal the details of intelligence gathering. Some way must be found to satisfy Moscow’s understandable reservations about the reliability of Western intelligence. But the Russians have to accept that the international community cannot stand by while these loathsome crimes are being committed. Action must be taken, if only to discourage the traffickers. Moscow should not impede this, merely to score political points.