A Moroccan man suffocated to death while his brother tried to smuggle him into Spain in a suitcase in the boot of his car. How many more people need to die crossing the Mediterranean before this trend receives the attention it deserves.

The 27 year-old man was on a ferry from Melilla, a Spanish territory on the north coast of Africa, to the Spanish mainland, the BBC reports. The man’s surviving brother, who possesses a French passport, was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter.

3 months ago, we told you of a child who was discovered inside a suitcase by x-ray machines, barely alive, in Ceuta, another north African Spanish enclave.

We all, by now, know of the often deadly crossings across the Mediterranean usually from Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The 8-year-old boy hidden in a suitcase. Photo: AF/HO via SpanishGuardiaCivil

There is a consistent wave of Africans risking their lives to leave the continent of their forefathers in search of better living conditions. Their presidents remain mum on the matter and protect each other from international accountability under the guise of ‘African solutions for African problems’. Global media doesn’t give these stories much prominence anymore as they have become saturated in the audience due to their frequency.

Perhaps the world would pay more attention if it was a pride of lions risking claw and mane to cross a tempestuous sea, away from Africa, on an unseaworthy vessel. Maybe then, the faces of the perished would be beamed on skyscrapers’ and some kind of outrage would bring much-needed awareness to this trend.