Many of the groups which smuggle people into Europe are based in the migrant quarters of Turkey's vast city on the EU border - Istanbul.
Kumkapi in Istanbul's Fatih district on the Marmara Sea coast is home to French speaking African communities and to Somalians.
Further west, Afghans and Iranians cluster in Zeytinburnu. Iraqis and Nigerians live mostly in Kurtulus, near the tourist hotspot of Taksim Square. Syrians favour parts of Kucukcekmece.
In Kumkapi, one smuggler hot...
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Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.