Migrants paid smugglers an estimated $388 million to $509 million for sea journeys to Europe in 2025, according to findings reported by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the UN migration agency, IOM. Approximately 190,000 to 209,000 people were smuggled along the four principal maritime routes. The Central Mediterranean corridor accounted for the largest number, with 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 reported paying more than $7,500 each. By contrast, smugglers received as little as $170 per person on the Northwest African Atlantic route, a dangerous passage in open boats to Spain’s Canary Islands. That route accounted for 33,000 people smuggled in 2025. The Eastern Mediterranean route was the second busiest, with 48,400 to 51,300 people, while the Western Mediterranean route, connecting North and West Africa to Spain, accounted for 24,500.
Payment offered no guarantee of arrival. Among everyone departing on these sea routes in 2025, 3,404 died or were reported missing, while another 104,200 were intercepted at sea and returned. The UN stressed that smuggling is undertaken for profit, but that not all people attempting irregular entry by sea use smugglers. On the Central Mediterranean route, for example, the agency estimated that smugglers facilitated between 72 and 86 percent of departures.
