Tripoli , Libya ( CNN ) Smugglers lure Arab and African migrants by offering discounts to get onto overcrowded ships if people bring more potential passengers , a CNN investigation has revealed . A smuggler in the Libyan capital of Tripoli laid bare the system for loading boats with poor and desperate refugees , during a conversation that a CNN producer secretly filmed . The conversation , recorded using a mobile phone , exposes the prices and incentives used to gather as many migrants as possible onto ships . An estimated 1,600 migrants have died so far this year on the dangerous Mediterranean crossing , but still more wait to try to reach Europe . CNN 's producer was introduced to a Senegalese and Malian smuggler by an intermediary in Tripoli , who mistakenly thought she was a Syrian looking to bring other Syrian refugees with her onto boats to Italy . Why I fled : Migrants share their stories . The smuggler took her to an unfinished building on the outskirts of Tripoli near the city 's many ports , where the migrants they have already found are kept until the crossing is ready . The building could only be reached by walking down a trash-littered alleyway , and featured a series of packed rooms , separated by curtains , where dozens sat -- well over the 80 migrants she was promised would be in her boat . The smuggler explained that the `` final price '' for Syrians -- often thought to be richer than their African migrant counterparts -- was $ 1,000 . He added that for each Syrian she brought with her , the producer would get a $ 100 discount . So if she brought 10 , she could travel free . He explained how the `` discount '' was `` well known , '' suggesting perhaps it was part of the unwritten rules that govern the trade and why so many migrants come to each boat . Any fears about the crossing were supposed to be allayed by the smuggler insisting the boats they used had new motors , and that the Senegalese pilot would have a satellite telephone and GPS to assist the crossing . He also assured CNN 's producer , when asked , that if the people became too many , they would use two boats . Pregnant women among migrants trying to cross .
CNN investigations uncovered the business inside a human smuggling ring . 50 % discount ##ed for every citizen of another paying migrant , desperate to reach Europe .