Mediterranean Sea migrant smuggling

According to the United Nations, human smuggling is defined as "the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident."

The terms "people smuggling" and "migrant smuggling" are often used interchangeably with "human smuggling", and follow the same definition provided by the United Nations.

Migrant smuggling is a blue crime, meaning a form of transnational organized crime at sea. More specifically, it represents a type of blue crime that involves criminal flows through the smuggling and maritime movement of people.

Irregular migration is not considered a blue crime, as it is not necessarily organized. However, when it involves migrant smuggling, it may fall under this category. Irregular migration across the Mediterranean Sea is often facilitated by smugglers, whose activities vary in terms of organization, scale, and methods. These can range from small groups of individuals to large transnational networks. Migrant smuggling is therefore closely linked to irregular migration, as smugglers provide means of transportation for individuals attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea through often hazardous routes. The flow of migrant smuggling is therefore affected by the trends of irregular migration and refugees.

While flows of migration have come and gone throughout history, current numbers surrounding human movement are unprecedented. Geographic, economic, and demographic factors create distinct migration patterns and routes over time. In 2020, there were 281 million international migrants across the globe, making up 3.6% of the global population. Though this is a small percentage of the total population, the number of individuals residing in states outside of where they were born has more than tripled since 1970.

Crossings of the Mediterranean Sea are commonly divided into four main routes: the Eastern Mediterranean route, with departures from Turkey to Greece, Cyprus, or Bulgaria; the Central Mediterranean route from Algeria, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia to Italy and Malta; the Western Mediterranean route from Algeria and Morocco to Spain – excluding the Canary Islands; and the West African route from Senegal, Mauritania, Morocco and Western Sahara to the Canary Islands. The two Western routes are often grouped together and referred to collectively as the Western route.

Since the 2015 Migration Crisis, the Central Mediterranean route has been declared the deadliest migration route in the world. More than 20,000 migrants died or went missing on the Mediterranean routes between 2014 and 2022. In 2024, nearly 208,000 irregular migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea and arrived in Europe, including 70,664 via the Western route, 70,295 via the Eastern route, and 66,855 via the Central route. This marked a decrease from over 275,000 arrivals in 2023. As of May 2025, a total of 41,875 migrants have arrived across the three main Mediterranean routes.