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How Smugglers Are Profiting From the Migrant Crisis

3 minute read

Nothing quite captures the scale of this summer’s migration crisis in Europe like the fields of deflated boats and life jackets scattered along the eastern islands of Greece. The beaches where tourists would normally sunbathe are practically coated with these items, sometimes stacked in mounds that could fill an Olympic swimming pool. Stare at them long enough and it’s hard to avoid an unsettling thought: someone is making a fortune on selling these things.

All along the western coast of Turkey, where most of the refugees from Syria set out, the migration crisis has brought windfalls for many forms of commerce that profit from migration. Life jackets can now be found hanging for sale outside of cigarette kiosks, clothing stores and at least one barbershop in the Turkish city of Bodrum. The owners of an enterprising hardware and furniture store in that city even put out a display of rubber boats in their parking lot early this summer, making sure potential buyers can see them from the adjacent highway.

“These are very, very popular items,” says Yasar Ozdemir, the market’s deputy floor manager. Every other day this summer, he says, some Arabic-speaking customers come and buy a boat for around $3,000, as well as a set of 10 to 15 life vests in various sizes, even ones for children. “Of course we all know what they’re doing with these boats,” he adds.

They are using them to make the crossing to the Greek islands, a stopover on their way to claim asylum in Western Europe. Typically this is the most dangerous part of their journey, and hundreds of migrants have drowned this year in the waters between Greece and Turkey, usually after their rubber dinghies deflate or flip over the water.

So Engin Olcay, the owner of Bodrum’s largest fishing and boating emporium, the Marina Plaza, sees his business as a kind of public service. “We offer quality here,” he says one afternoon in early September, holding up a life vest that retails for $120. “We save lives.”

He wouldn’t say exactly how much he has earned this year from the sale of such commodities. But the trade has become one of the more lucrative aspects of mass migration for businessmen along the Turkish coast. Most of the profit still goes to the smugglers in this region who charge upwards of $1000 per person to arrange the crossing by boat to Greece. But the boats themselves have become a lasting symbol of the refugee crisis – and a blessing to many of the entrepreneurs who turn a profit on mass migration.

For more: Meet the Smugglers Bringing Migrants to Greece

Witness the Resilience of Thousands of Refugees on Their Way to Europe

Migrant crisis
A boat full of migrants, lit by the flashlights from the Greek coast guard, is rescued from the waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Sept. 5, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
A Syrian migrant aboard a flimsy rubber motorboat hands his one-month-old baby to Greek coast guards, who have arrived to rescue the boat full of migrants from dangerous waters near the border between Greece and Turkey.  Sept. 7, 2015.
A Syrian migrant aboard a flimsy rubber motorboat hands his 1-month-old baby to Greek coast guardsmen, who have arrived to rescue the boat full of migrants from dangerous waters near the border between Greece and Turkey. Sept. 7, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Syrian migrants are taken to Greece aboard a Greek coast guard vessel after it rescued them from waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Sept. 7, 2015.
Syrian migrants are taken to Leros, Greece, at daybreak, aboard a Greek coast guard vessel after it rescued them from waters near the Greek-Turkish border. Center-left, a refugee couple from Damascus, Syria is on their honeymoon. The groom, Muhdi Salem, 29, is wearing a black shirt; and the bride, Sanaa Salem, 29, is sleeping with her head in his lap. Sept. 7, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Volunteers from Western Europe help a boat full of migrants from Syria and Afghanistan come ashore on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 4, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
A man holding a child comes ashore near the village of Skala Sikamineas, on the northern tip of Lesbos, after navigating the 6-mile crossing from Turkey on an inflatable raft. The next destination from migrants arriving from Turkey is a 34-mile walk to Mytilini, the capital of Lesbos. Sept. 18, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
Refugees are helped by volunteers and tourists in Skala Sikamineas on the northern tip of Lesbos, Greece. Thousands of migrants have come ashore this summer on the Greek island of Lesbos, a popular tourist destination. Sept. 18, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
A beach on the Greek island of Lesbos is festooned with orange life jackets and deflated rafts abandoned by migrants who are coming ashore near the village of Skala Sikamineas after navigating the 6-mile crossing from Turkey on inflatable rafts. Between 2,000 and 3,500 migrants now reach the island daily, riding on about 100 inflatable rafts. Sept. 15, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
Migrants form a camp to rest on the roadside on the island of Lesbos, Greece, after coming ashore from Turkey on overcrowded rubber boats. Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 4, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
An Afghan migrant shaves with the help of a traffic mirror on the side of a highway on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 5, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrants from Afghanistan dance at a hastily built camp for asylum seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 4, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
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A group of Pakistani men wait at a park next to the bus station in Bodrum, waiting to make the journey to Greece on a dinghy. Bodrum, Turkey, Sept. 16, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
KOY201509060048, 49, 83, 74Migrants pray at the makeshift mosque they have built inside a detention and processing camp for asylum seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos. Photograph by Yuri Kozyrev/ NOOR for TIME
Migrants pray at the makeshift mosque they have built inside a detention and processing camp for asylum seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos, Sept. 4, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
KOY201509060155, 157, 165Migrants rest and recharge their phones aboard a cruise ship that the Greek government chartered to transport them to Athens from the Greek island of Lesbos. The regular ferry service traveling this route was unable to cope with the unprecedented influx of migrants going through Greece to Western Europe from various conflict zones across the Muslim world.Photograph by Yuri Kozyrev/ NOOR for TIME
Migrants rest aboard a cruise ship that the Greek government chartered to transport them to Athens from Lesbos. The regular ferry service traveling this route was unable to cope with the unprecedented influx of migrants going through Greece to Western Europe from various conflict zones across the Muslim world. Sept. 5, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
A migrant takes a selfie aboard a cruise ship that the Greek government chartered to transport them to Athens from the Greek island of Lesbos, Sept. 5, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
KOY201509060123, 140, 145, 148Migrants come aboard a cruise ship that the Greek government chartered to transport them to Athens from the Greek island of Lesbos. The regular ferry service traveling this route was unable to cope with the unprecedented influx of migrants going through Greece to Western Europe from various conflict zones across the Muslim world.Photograph by Yuri Kozyrev/ NOOR for TIME
Migrants come aboard a cruise ship that the Greek government chartered to transport them to Athens from the Greek island of Lesbos. Sept. 5, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
Ghafek Aiad Alsaho, a Syrian migrant, looks through the window of a police bus after border guards caught him crossing illegally from Serbia into Hungary on his way into the European Union. Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 29, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
A group of migrants walks toward a Hungarian detention center for migrants arriving in the European Union, Aug. 31, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
A group of migrants from Afghanistan takes a rest before crossing into the European Union through the border between Serbia and Hungary. Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 31, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
A group of migrants from Syria prepares to cross into the European Union through the border between Serbia and Hungary. Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 29, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
Migrants wait behind a police line for Hungarian authorities to register their arrival in the European Union. Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 29, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
A Syrian family prepares to turn themselves into a Hungarian detention facility for migrants arriving in the European Union. Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 29, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
A group of migrants takes a rest before crossing into the European Union through the border between Serbia and Hungary. Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 30, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
A group of migrants waits at a makeshift detention camp for Hungarian authorities to register their arrival in the European Union. Roszke, Hungary, Aug. 29, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
Migrants protest for the right to travel to Germany and claim asylum at the Keleti train station in Budapest which was temporarily closed. Sept. 1, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
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Thousands of migrants stranded at the Keleti train station in Budapest, Hungary, blocked from traveling to Austria, Germany and destinations in northern Europe where they hope to seek asylum. Sept. 2, 2015. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME
Migrant crisis
Volunteers wave goodbye to migrants at the railway station in Szeged, Hungary. Hungarian authorities have used passenger trains to transport incoming migrants from the border region to registration centers in other parts of Hungary, Aug. 30, 2015.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME

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Write to Francesca Trianni at francesca.trianni@time.com