There are an average of 6,000 smuggled migrants
who attempt to reach Australia by sea every year,
most of which pay around US$14,000 for smuggling
services. This generates an income for smugglers
of US$85 million annually. If we take the 492
smuggled migrants that arrived in Canada on the
MV Sun Sea in 2010 as an average for annual arrivals,
and multiply by the reported US$25,000 fee, these
operations would generate US$12.3 million a year
for the smugglers