Migrants paid up to $500 million in smuggling fees on European sea routes

The price tag for smuggling on European sea routes reached up to half a billion dollars last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN migration office, IOM, reported on Wednesday.Key pointsTotal fees paid to smugglers on sea routes to Europe reached between $388 and $509 million in 2025: UNODC estimatesThe busiest smuggling corridor was the Central Mediterranean route, where 84,000 to 100,400 people attempted a crossingAlmost half of migrants trying to get smuggled into Italy or Malta from North Africa or Türkiye reported paying fees of over $7,500 each, an IOMsurvey found.Other routes are cheaper than this busy Central Mediterranean corridor.Smugglers received as little as $170 per person for transport across the Northwest African Atlantic route, a dangerous maritime path where people travel in open boats from the coasts of Northwest Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands. Read the full survey here.Busy routes The report found that around 190,000 to 209,000 people were smuggled along the four main sea routes to Europe in 2025. The busiest smuggling route was the Central Mediterranean route (84,000 to 100,400 people), followed by the Eastern Mediterranean (48,400 to 51,3...