Migrant smuggling is a lucrative criminal industry, with a yearly global market value of at least USD 7 billion. Payments and proceeds are hard to trace, as most transactions are made informally in cash.
Explore the illicit financial flows behind this deadly business – how they work and occur and the mechanisms that enable these transactions.
Illicit financial flows are movements of money that are illegal in their origin, transfer or use, involve an exchange of value and cross-national borders. These flows can occur in different contexts, including:
Migrant smuggling is fundamentally a financial transaction: a person pays a smuggler for illegal transport services. Fees for these services vary widely, ranging from USD 20 to USD 10,000. The cost depends on factors such as the nationality of the smuggled person, the route and the mode of transport (land, sea, air or a combination), security risks, corruption and other situational factors.
Another context for illicit financial flows is between smugglers themselves. Transfers occur when one smuggler, based in one country, pays an accomplice in another country, either as a “salary” or to cover operational costs. The amounts vary depending on the types of service provided.
For example, in one case of migrant smuggling by land from Türkiye to Bulgaria via Greece, the organizer of the smuggling group received EUR 10,000- 13,000 per trip from four to five clients. From this, the organizer paid EUR 500 to the guide and EUR 200 to the person who provided the vehicle.
Illicit financial flows can also move from smugglers to officials, either as bribes or, in cases where officials are accomplices, as regular transfers or shares of criminal proceeds. Recipients may include law enforcement officers, border guards, military personnel, immigration officials, police, embassy and consulate staff and port authorities.
Illicit financial flows can happen when smugglers transfer crime proceeds across borders through investments or money laundering.
These types of flows may coexist within a single smuggling network. For instance, in a 2012 case involving the transportation of Iranian migrants to Western Europe, smugglers operated across multiple transit countries - including Türkiye, Greece, Czechia, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands - while the main organizer was based in France. Value transfers occurred between Iran (the centre of economic interest for the migrants), transit countries along the route, destination countries in Western Europe and France, as the location of the main organizer.
Smugglers provide their services in different ways, depending on the level of organization, the complexity of the journey and the financial capacity of migrants.
To reach a distant destination quickly, smugglers offer a “comprehensive package”. This option covers the entire journey from the country of origin to the final destination in a single payment.
However, the significant cost can push migrants into a debt bondage, making them vulnerable to trafficking for forced labour or sexual exploitation – either by the smugglers themselves or by associated actors.
Such packages may include the facilitation of irregular border crossings, provision of forged or fraudulent documents, transportation across multiple legs and temporary accommodation. Because this model requires coordination across complex and well-established networks, it is typically offered by organized criminal groups. Fees for these packages are high and can reach several thousands of dollars.
Since comprehensive “packages” are unaffordable for many people, smugglers also offer services individually, in a “marketplace” style. In this model, migrants make smaller, incremental payments to opportunistic actors. These individuals often engage in migrant smuggling only occasionally, supplementing other income sources or participating when opportunities arise.
For example, in 2016, a local resident agreed - by chance encounter - to help 10 people to irregularly cross from North Macedonia into Serbia, for a fee of EUR 20 per person. The smuggler met the migrants while travelling for personal reasons and took the opportunity to earn money.
Certain services command higher fees than others. One example is high-quality fraudulent documents, whose price varies depending on how they were obtained - through forgery or theft - as well as the issuing country.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) works with countries to strengthen their response to migrant smuggling. UNODC provides training to authorities on tracing illicit financial flows, analysing digital evidence and improving cross-border cooperation. Through this support, countries are better equipped to dismantle smuggling networks - seizing a greater share of criminal proceeds, including virtual assets and using digital and financial evidence to secure successful prosecutions.
The Global Action Against the Financial and Digital Dimensions of the Smuggling of Migrants project, funded by the European Union, focuses on strengthening countries’ capacity to address the financial and digital aspects of migrant smuggling.
