Migrant smuggling is a crime committed for a profit, driven by a demand for crossing borders outside of regular channels and affecting countless countries across the globe. Most people are smuggled within or across regions, while some are smuggled across entire continents.
Despite growing political attention and international efforts to combat this crime, smuggling of migrants continues to be committed on various migratory routes by land, sea and air all over the world, in some cases with impunity.
Here are five key facts about migrant smuggling to help you better understand this crime.
2023 marked the deadliest year on record for people on the move. Almost 8,600 people lost their lives on irregular migration routes globally, according to the International Organization for Migration, a shocking 20 per cent increase in just one year. Many of these people were the object of smuggling.
A recent UNODC study shows that the financial flows from migrant smuggling often cross borders, involving smuggling payments and transfers among members of a smuggling group, as well as in the context of money laundering of smuggling proceeds.
The deadliest form of migrant smuggling is by sea. Almost 60 per cent of fatalities are due to drowning on sea routes. Many of these maritime journeys are organized by smugglers. Mediterranean routes are among the most perilous for migrants and refugees. Tragically, tens of thousands of people have disappeared or lost their lives in this region over the past decade. Many who entrust their lives to smugglers face fatal consequences, traveling in unseaworthy or overcrowded vessels.
Smuggling involves providing a migrant or refugees with assistance in crossing an international border without the proper authorization, in return for a payment. It can be committed by air, usually facilitated by counterfeit or fraudulently obtained documents, on perilous overland journeys across roads, deserts, forests, mountains and rivers or on hazardous sea passages.
The main land and sea smuggling routes include African routes by land towards North and Southern Africa, by sea to the Gulf countries and southern Europe, and routes from South Asia and the Middle East towards Europe. Land and sea smuggling routes also lead from South and South-East Asia to wealthier countries in South-East Asia and the Pacific. Land routes also operate through Latin America, and between Latin America and North America. Smuggling by air often involves intercontinental flights to hub airports, before transiting onwards to the final intended destination, with elements of document fraud.
Migrant smuggling is estimated to be a lucrative criminal industry, with a market value of at least $5.5-7 billion. UNODC estimated that in 2023 on the Central Mediterranean route from North Africa to Southern Europe, the total financial value of smuggling of migrants by sea was US$290-370 million, with smuggling offences committed to facilitate the journeys of around 175,000–228,000 people.
Smugglers take advantage of migrants and refugees by exploiting their desire to move and lack of options for regular travel for smugglers’ material or financial gain, often charging extortionate fees for their services.
They typically charge for transportation, accommodation, fraudulent work permits, passports and visas. UNODC has found that criminal networks commonly use payment and transfer methods, like cash and informal banking systems, that are difficult for authorities to track.
In some cases, illicit finances are laundered and disguised as legal income of legitimate businesses, such as travel and recruitment agencies, and then processed and transferred along with legal funds. Given the clandestine nature of migrant smuggling, tracking the money is crucial to combatting these criminal activities.
Migrant smuggling is a crime that can generate high profits and a low risk of punishment for the criminals involved, especially for those at the top echelons of the networks.
The ringleaders of these operations are typically not physically involved in transporting people across borders, making them less likely to be detected by authorities. Instead, it is mainly the more visible “low-level players” who risk arrest and prosecution.
There are cases where smuggled migrants and refugees who cannot pay the smugglers are coerced into navigating boats or assuming other supporting roles as payment for passage. This strategy ensures migrants and refugees would bear the liability for the smugglers if intercepted by border control or the coastguard, allowing criminal groups to operate without risk to their own people and resources.
Even though migrants and refugees may begin their journey by agreeing to be smuggled into a country, they may be cheated, coerced or forced into an exploitative situation by smugglers or other actors later in the process.
The risk is especially high for those stranded for long periods and in need of earning money to finance the next step in their journey and pay for their transportation.
Migrants and refugees who use smuggling networks to flee their countries of origin or find better opportunities may be subjected to various forms of exploitation, including human trafficking, abuse, violence, torture, rape, deprivation of liberty, kidnapping or extortion while in transit or captivity. Women and girls regularly face abuse, violence and sexual assault.
UNODC strives to enhance the common understanding and evidence base of this crime, work towards reducing impunity, address the financial dimension of the crime and promote respect for the rights of smuggled persons.
It helps countries to prevent migrant smuggling, deliver justice and protect lives and human rights in line with the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants.
UNODC’s work contributes to safeguarding people from the abuse, neglect, exploitation or even death that can be associated with migrant smuggling.
Explore UNODC’s Observatory on Smuggling of Migrants.
