Promise of Europe Lures Syrians and Smugglers

SIDE, Turkey — He left his home in Syria over a year ago and set out more than a dozen times, he said, on perilous and ill-fated seaborne journeys to the promised lands of Western Europe. He never made it. In his last attempt, the fishing boat he was on capsized, killing 44 people, including one of his best friends.

“I swam for 11 ½ hours before I was rescued by the Turks,” the man said. “That’s when I realized that I would never make it to Europe. So I decided to stay and help people get there myself.”

The decision proved to be profitable for the man, who is known as Abu Mohammed, a pseudonym he chose to protect his identity because of the illegal nature of his work and the fact that he is wanted by Interpol, he said.

Abu Mohammed, a charismatic former heart surgeon’s assistant, is now a crucial operative in a sprawling migrant smuggling operation based in Turkey that has grown by the year as the Syrian civil war grinds on. He makes about $500 per passenger by organizing large cargo ships supplied by Egyptian businessmen to transport other Syrians to Europe. He works with three partners in Turkey and said they had transferred thousands of Syrians to Europe over the past four months.

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Mersin

“We do everything in our capacity to try and stop them, but the numbers are so vast now that it is impossible to monitor all smuggling activity,” he added.

In Mersin, Abu Mohammed sits in his home and fields phone calls from passengers who have made it to Italy. For one call, he puts the phone on loudspeaker and smiles as a man thanks him for getting his family to Italy.

“People have grown to trust me,” he said.

Karam Shoumali contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on February 6, 2015, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Promise of Europe Lures Syrians and Smugglers. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe

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