--- description: For the people involved in smuggling the migrants to Europe, it’s been a very profitable year title: How Smugglers Profit From the Migrant Crisis image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40f9b69f32676f14/69886534a988ca04616b4805/koy20150916_-skala-sikamineas_-lesbos-00251.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # How Smugglers Are Profiting From the Migrant Crisis by [Simon Shuster](/author/simon-shuster/) and [Francesca Trianni](/author/francesca-trianni/) Oct 8, 2015 1:10 PM CUT  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. 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 by [Simon Shuster](/author/simon-shuster/) and [Francesca Trianni](/author/francesca-trianni/) Oct 8, 2015 1:10 PM CUT 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](http://time.com/4065968/meet-the-smugglers-bringing-migrants-to-greece/ "undefined") ### Witness the Resilience of Thousands of Refugees on Their Way to Europe  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 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 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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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  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. 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