The EU's internal freedom of movement is mirrored by ‘thickened' external borders designed to arrest irregular migration, particularly across the Mediterranean. These increasingly robust barriers have merely diverted migration flows through ever more dangerous routes. Migrants often become trapped in North Africa without rights or access to international protection regimes, and many turn to human smugglers to facilitate their journey. The combination of state weakness in the region and the lucrative nature of human trafficking make migrants particularly vulnerable to abuse. Rigid distinctions between ‘genuine' asylum seekers and other types of migrants have become tenuous given new dynamics of migration. Control measures increasingly mean the violation of internationally codified rights and protections. Since 2007, the Egyptian Sinai has become one of the main routes for East African migrants, and an average of 900 per month cross the border into Israel. Bedouin tribes operate complex transnational trafficking networks, which have proven horrifically abusive. Hundreds have reported systematic torture and rape in makeshift prisons in the Sinai for the purpose of extorting money through remittances. Israel has responded to the influx of migrants by erecting border fortifications. The paper charts the progress of European migration controls, and compares these with migration route diversions. Through the Egyptian/Israeli case, it argues that rather than stopping irregular migration, thickened borders push migration flows along political 'paths of least resistance' resulting in pathologies including increased migrant fatalities, more lucrative human trafficking, undermining international protection regimes, and regressive forms of territoriality. Its findings are based on two research trips to Israel and Egypt to conduct in-depth interviews with migrants, activists, NGO personnel, and governmental officials.