India, Oct. 22 -- 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 and the UN migration office reported on Wednesday.
Almost half of migrants trying to get smuggled into Italy or Malta from North Africa or Turkey reported paying fees of over $7,500 each, an IOM survey has 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.
The report found that around 190,000 to 209,000 people were smuggled along the fo...