Black markets in border crossing

 Human smuggling across borders has become a substantial business, with the demand by desperate migrants being filled by criminal gangs, some of them more used to smuggling drugs. Here's a story from the WSJ about migrants aiming to come to the U.S. through Mexico, and then a somewhat similar story about crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe.

Truck in Fatal Mexican Crash Was Packed With Over 160 Migrants. Smugglers said to cram people into tractor-trailers to avoid increased inspections of passenger buses on way to U.S.  By José de Córdoba  and Anthony Harrup

"It was the worst accident involving migrants in Mexico and the highest single-day toll since the killing of 72 migrants by the Zetas drug cartel in the border state of Tamaulipas in 2010. A group of Guatemalan migrants were massacred earlier this year by Mexican security forces, also in Tamaulipas.

"More than have 650 people died this year attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, more than in any year since 2014, the United Nations International Organization for Migration said Friday.

"Most of the migrants were from Guatemala, although there were several from the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Ecuador, Gen. Rodríguez Bucio said.

"He said the migrants entered Mexico through mountain paths and dirt roads in smaller groups several days earlier. They had gathered at safe houses used by smugglers in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, from where they were loaded onto the truck Thursday afternoon.

...

"Guatemalans have few legal pathways to emigrate to the U.S., said Andrew Selee, the president of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. In fiscal year 2020, the U.S. provided about 4,000 seasonal work visas to Guatemalans.

“We urgently need to find ways of creating legal pathways for people to migrate instead of driving them further into the hands of smugglers and raising the risk of the journey,” Mr. Selee added."

**********

And this from Associated Press via the Guardian:

At least 16 dead after third migrant boat in three days sinks in Greek waters.  People still missing despite major rescue effort as smugglers switch to more perilous route from Turkey

"At least 16 people have died after a migrant boat capsized in the Aegean Sea late Friday, bringing to at least 30 the combined death toll from three accidents in as many days involving migrant boats in Greek waters.

"The sinkings came as smugglers increasingly favour a perilous route from Turkey to Italy, which avoids Greece’s heavily patrolled eastern Aegean islands that for years were at the forefront of the country’s migration crisis.

...

"“People need safe alternatives to these perilous crossings,” the Greek office of the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said in a tweet.

...

"Greece is a popular entry point into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. But arrivals dropped sharply in the last two years after Greece extended a wall at the Turkish border and began intercepting inbound boats carrying migrants and refugees – a tactic criticised by human rights groups.

"More than 116,000 asylum-seekers crossed the Mediterranean to reach EU countries this year as of 19 December, according to UNHCR. The agency said 55% travelled to Italy, 35% to Spain and 7% to Greece, with the remainder heading to Malta and Cyprus."