Photo

A men’s shop in Izmir, Turkey, sells life jackets, capitalizing on a bustling “raft economy” fueled by a growing tide of migrants from the Middle East.Credit Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

IZMIR, Turkey — For months, Ahmed Abdul-Hamid, a Palestinian from the Syrian city of Aleppo, tried and failed to cross the sea to start a new life in Europe. The Turkish police detained him. Smugglers tricked him. Once, his boat stalled and he had to swim back to shore, leaving him stranded and broke.

But his fortunes changed this summer when a Turkish smuggler hired him to recruit passengers from among the refugees and migrants flooding into this port city. Soon, his phone was ringing nonstop with people trying to get to Europe, and the cash was pouring in for him — as much as $4,000 per day.

“Some weeks I get nothing,” Mr. Abdul-Hamid, 21, said. “Other times, I’m so busy I can’t keep up.”

Mr. Abdul-Hamid’s swift success is a small part of the multimillion-dollar shadow economy that has developed in Turkey to profit from the massive human tide rushing toward Europe. Much of this new economy is visible in the streets here, where smugglers solicit refugees, clothing stores display life vests and inner tubes, and tour buses and taxis shuttle passengers to remote launch sites along the coast.

Money is flowing through Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey, now a grim hub for migrants and a boom town for residents. Hidden from view is an extensive smuggling infrastructure, with makeshift “insurance offices” that hold migrants’ money, covert factories that churn out ineffective life vests and underground suppliers of cheap rubber rafts that sometimes pop or capsize during the voyage to Greece, stranding or drowning people at sea.

The vast majority of the nearly half-million migrants and refugees who have entered Europe by sea this year have arrived from Turkey, according to the United Nations. And while Europe struggles to respond to the influx, there is no sign here that the outflow will wane as long as there is so much money to be made. If anything, the numbers appear to be growing.

Turkish officials say they strive to stop illegal migration and have detained 57,000 travelers and 107 human traffickers this year. “The Turkish authorizes are doing everything in their power to prevent illegal immigration and related casualties,” an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity according to government protocol. “Instead of pointing fingers, the international community must develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with the situation in Syria.”

But here in Izmir, the state appears to be standing by as the daily crush of migrants make their way through town and to the coast to catch rafts to Greece — an hourlong crossing, if all goes well. International monitors say that while migrants pump cash into the formal economy, the biggest winners are well-organized criminal networks that probably pay off the authorities to look the other way. Migrants and low-level smugglers made similar allegations that the authorities are sometimes paid to let migrants pass.

“It is a perfect storm,” said Demetrios Papademetriou, the president of the Migration Policy Institute Europe, of the forces driving the market.

To get here, many of the travelers say they were forced to cash out their lives, selling land, jewelry and heirlooms, hoping that what is ahead will replace what was left behind. In dozens of recent interviews in Turkey and Greece, migrants described going to great lengths to flee — taking on debt or pooling money from relatives to fund trips. Some came from Iraq and Jordan by plane, while others endured long bus rides from Iran or across Turkey. Still others passed though Lebanon to catch passenger ferries.

Once in Turkey, they converge in Izmir, repurposing a struggling tourist infrastructure for the new raft economy.

A Look at the Raft Business in Izmir

Clothing

stores

selling life

jackets

Restaurant

popular among

refugees

3. “Insurance Office”

Migrants wait here at night for instructions from smugglers on how to reach launch points.

Many have put signs in their windows in Arabic saying they change dollars to euros and euros to dollars.

Location of one place where migrants deposit their cash for smugglers before leaving.

Many migrants arrive here, where smugglers try to catch them as they get off buses.

Clothing

stores

selling life

jackets

Restaurant

popular

among

refugees

3. “Insurance Office”

Migrants wait here at night for instructions from smugglers on how to reach launch points.

Location of one place where migrants deposit their cash for smugglers before leaving.

Many have put signs in their windows in Arabic saying they change dollars to euros and euros to dollars.

Many migrants arrive here, where smugglers try to catch them as they get off buses.

“It is all about the future,” said Mohammed Khadra, a Palestinian refugee from Damascus who deserted the Syrian Army and fled to Turkey with $470 zipped into the pocket of his track pants. “There is no life left in Syria.”

Thousands of migrants flock daily to the Basmane neighborhood, where they clog sidewalks with heavy bags and are often snared by smugglers on arrival.

“You have to decide now; the boats are filling up,” a smuggler told a confused-looking couple with two young children, pressing them to pay as Turkish police officers strolled by. “It is all safe and secure.”

Migrants gather near the Sinbad Restaurant, which is named after a folkloric Arab sailor but now overflows with modern voyagers seeking cheap meals.

Nearby hotels that once courted tourists pack in people for $10 a night for spots on the floor. Others sleep on sidewalks or under bridges.

Shops do swift business in backpacks and hip packs. One store has men’s suits in one window and a family of mannequins wearing orange life vests in another. An employee who would not give his name said he sold 80 vests a day, for $13 each. Stacks of new life jackets lined the walls of a basement storehouse next door.

“The refugees need these and we are making them available — in different sizes,” said the woman working in the storehouse, who also refused to give her name.

European Refugee and Migrant Crisis

But the abundance of life vests covers one of the city’s dark secrets: many of these items are locally made with cheap materials that leave the migrants vulnerable as they cross the sea. Some of the vests, for example, are made of foam that absorbs water.

“We tell people not to buy the life vests because they’ll sink,” said a Syrian selling inner tubes on the sidewalk, declining to give his name for fear of retribution. “We tell them to buy inner tubes.”

The largest profits, however, go to powerful Turkish smugglers on the coast who oversee the boats, according to the Syrians they employ and Greek maritime officials who track their activities.

To fill their boats while remaining out of sight, they use Syrian “agents” who earn commissions for bringing passengers. Most passengers pay $1,200, and one person selected to pilot each raft rides free. Children go for half price.

Most rafts hold 45 passengers, earning the smugglers a total of nearly $60,000. Even after paying commissions, the cost of the boat and motor and bribing officials, smugglers can net more than $30,000 for each successful crossing, according to Syrians involved in the process.

To pay their way, passengers deposit their money at makeshift “insurance offices” and receive a numeric code. Once they reach Europe, they give the code to their agent so he can collect the payment.

He can also get the fare if the passenger is gone for three days, meaning that even if the passenger drowned, the smuggler gets paid.

How Some Reached the Rafts

Most of the refugees crossing from Turkey to Greece are fleeing war zones. Here are the routes that a few of them took to reach Izmir, where they boarded rafts to Greece.

$200 (cars and

smugglers)

Ghalia and Nadir

A couple from Damascus traveling with two young sons, trying to reach Germany.

Malik al-Saleh, 21

Mr. Saleh was studying Arabic literature at a university but quit when the Islamic State took over the area.

Fatima and Hossam

An Iraqi couple traveling with their two children. Hossam was a blacksmith in Baghdad.

Hozan Mahmoud, 28

An Iraqi Kurd university student who also worked as an accountant and earned $600 a month.

$200 (cars and

smugglers)

Malik al-Saleh, 21

Mr. Saleh was studying Arabic literature at a university but quit when the Islamic State took over the area.

Fatima and Hossam

An Iraqi couple traveling with their two children. Hassam was a blacksmith in Baghdad.

Ghalia and Nadir

A couple from Damascus traveling with two young sons, trying to reach Germany.

Hozan Mahmoud, 28

An Iraqi Kurd university student who also worked as an accountant and earned $600 a month.

While many migrants have reclaimed their money after failed crossings (minus the $50 transaction fee), others lost everything when their agents disappeared.

Ibrahim Ali Basha, an accountant from Syria, said he and a friend had rushed to the coast with their families after hearing a widespread rumor that Germany was sending ships to pick up refugees.

The news was false, and they ended up in Izmir with only a fraction of the $11,000 needed to get their group to Europe.

Out of options, Mr. Basha was trying to sell a kidney to fund the trip. “Everyone is scared to buy,” he said.

Earlier this year Mr. Abdul-Hamid, the Palestinian smugglers’ agent, was also broke and stranded after failing to reach Europe. This month, he showed up in Izmir with new clothes, gelled hair, designer sunglasses and a thick silver necklace and bracelet.

Over a kebab dinner frequently interrupted by calls from potential clients, he said that besides building his wardrobe and paying his hotel bill, he had used his profits to smuggle two of his brothers out of Syria and into Europe. He planned to send the rest of his family before going himself, he said. “Unless they stop it over there,” he said, gesturing toward Greece, “the people will keep going.”

Boats are the smugglers’ essential tool and they have used a variety in their quest to keep costs down.

The Greek authorities have intercepted life rafts taken from cruise ships, stolen fishing boats and jet skis carrying two passengers who paid about $2,250 each, said Antonios Sofiadelis, of the Hellenic Coast Guard on Lesbos, where most migrants now land. But the most common vessels are 30-foot-long, inflatable black rafts, scores of which leave Turkey every day and whose remains litter Greek beaches. The smugglers often tell passengers to pop the boats with knives if the Greek Coast Guard approaches to force a rescue and avoid being sent back.

“They are taking the lives of these migrants,” said Lado Gvilava, head of the International Organization for Migration in Turkey. “They drop them in the middle of the ocean, show them some lights and abandon them in the middle of the sea.”

Most rafts bear no markings indicating their origin and are so flimsy that many suspect they are made in Turkey specifically for smuggling. “These boats cannot be used for any other purpose,” Mr. Sofiadelis said. “Not for pleasure, nor fishing — nothing.”

Yavuz Savut, who owns a maritime supply store, said he sold about 20 $4,000 rafts a month, making this year his most lucrative ever. He assumed the buyers were smugglers.

“It is a legal business, so we don’t ask people what they are going to do with it,” he said.

Nearby, another store had dozens of the same Chinese-made outboard motors used on the rafts stacked on the sidewalk and inside the store. Trucks continually stopped to haul them away.

At night, crowds of migrants ready to depart gather in an oceanfront park awaiting directions to launch points from their smugglers. One night, dozens of migrants boarded tour buses parked near the Izmir municipal building. Others left in taxis, vans or trucks.

As the sun rose one morning over the Greek island of Lesbos, Malik Al-Saleh, who had left Izmir the night before, stepped from a raft and kissed the sand before turning back to help others off. Mr. Saleh, 21, had fled eastern Syria after it was taken over by the Islamic State and made the trip with his brother, two sisters and their two babies. All knew that some migrants had drowned attempting the journey, but had decided the risk was worth it anyway.

“We had seen the photos, but what else could we do?” he said. “We are running away from death.”