Refugees are individuals who are forced to leave their homeland due to threats to their life or freedom. In contrast, migrants decide to leave motivated by economic interests, often leading them to use illegal routes and the services of smugglers. Migrant smuggling is described as a complex operation with various factors influencing its dynamics, including the type of journey, destination, route, and cost. The causes of migration are analyzed, highlighting the situations in Syria, Libya, Somalia, and Eritrea. These countries present challenges of mass displacement due to conflicts, persecution, poverty, and political instability. The sea routes migrants take are also explored, and divided into the eastern, western, and central routes, emphasizing the different points of departure and destination. Measures to control illegal migration represent a key aspect of migration management policies in many countries. Important measures for controlling illegal migration include strengthening borders, improving passenger controls, preventing smugglers, the asylum system, and international cooperation, which are measures implemented by FRONTEX and the EU to control illegal migration. The number of arrivals in Europe is analyzed, specifically in the five countries that are destinations on the main sea routes for migrants: Spain, Italy, Malta, Greece, and Cyprus, and these data are compared with each other. The number of intercepted migrants by three coast guards is also addressed: the Turkish Coast Guard, which is located on the eastern sea route and thus performs the most interceptions there, and the Tunisian and Libyan Coast Guards on the central sea route, which is the most frequented by migrants. The number of recorded casualties and disappearances is broken down into three main routes of movement, that is, in the three regions of the Mediterranean (Western, Central, and Eastern). Towards the end, the process of developing potential future scenarios is described.