Payments to smugglers operating on sea routes to Europe reached an estimated $388 million to $509 million in 2025, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Between 190,000 and 209,000 people were estimated to have been smuggled along the four principal maritime routes, with the Central Mediterranean accounting for the largest number: 84,000 to 100,400 attempted crossings.
Fees varied considerably between routes. An IOM survey found that almost half of migrants seeking to reach Italy or Malta from North Africa or Turkey paid more than $7,500 each. By contrast, charges on the Northwest African Atlantic route were as low as $170 per person. That dangerous passage takes people in open boats from the Northwest African coast to Spain’s Canary Islands.
Paying a smuggler did not ensure that travellers reached their intended destination. Across all departures on the sea routes in 2025, 3,404 people died or were reported missing, while a further 104,200 were intercepted at sea and returned. These totals concern everyone departing on the routes, not exclusively those using smugglers. Although the UN identified profit as the motive behind smuggling offences, it also emphasised an important distinction: not everyone attempting irregular entry into Europe by sea had been smuggled.
