Migrants pay up to $500 million in smuggling fees via European sea routes

Key points

• Total fees paid to smugglers via sea routes to Europe to reach between $388 and $509 million by 2025: UNODC estimation
• The busiest smuggling corridor is the Central Mediterranean route, where 84,000 to 100,400 people try to cross.

Nearly half of migrants trying to be smuggled into Italy or Malta from North Africa or Turkey reported paying fees of more than $7,500 each, a IOM survey found.

Other routes are cheaper than this busy Central Mediterranean corridor.

Smugglers received just $170 per person for transportation across the Atlantic route of Northwest Africa, a dangerous maritime passage where people traveled in open boats from the coast of Northwest Africa to the Canary Islands in Spain.

Read the full survey Here.

Busy route

The report found that around 190,000 to 209,000 people were smuggled via four main sea routes to Europe by 2025.

The busiest smuggling route is the Central Mediterranean (84,000 to 100,400 people), followed by the Eastern Mediterranean (48,400 to 51,300), which stretches from Turkey, Libya and the Middle East to Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria.

The North West Africa Atlantic route was third, with 33,000 people smuggled, followed by the West Mediterranean route (24,500) linking North and West Africa to Spain.

Goals are not guaranteed

Many people who pay fees to be smuggled to Europe do not reach their destination, according to the UN.

Of all passengers departing by sea in 2025, 3,404 people will die or be reported missing.

Another 104,200 people were intercepted at sea and returned.

Smuggling is not the only way

“The perpetrator committed the smuggling offense to gain profit,” UNODC said. However, the agency stressed that not everyone who tries to enter irregularly by sea is smuggled.

The UN office estimates that 72 to 86 percent of people departing via the Central Mediterranean route in 2025 will be smugglers, along with 73 to 83 percent of people departing via the Atlantic Route to Northwest Africa.

On the Western Mediterranean route, 57 to 90 percent is smuggled, and on the Eastern Mediterranean route, the figure ranges from 75 to 90 percent.

Read the full UNODC report Here.