KABUL, Afghanistan — With roads to Europe increasingly blocked by strict border controls, Afghans hoping to flee war and economic peril are desperately searching for new escape routes by way of refugee camps in India, airports in Russia and even the beaches of Cuba.

The shifting travel plans are also seeing Afghans trying to buy their way into Europe without ever leaving Kabul, through the purchase of visas.

These recent developments may signal the next phase in a migration crisis that is rattling world leaders and draining Afghanistan of its workforce.

After a year in which hundreds of thousands of Afghans poured into Europe by land, more migrants are now trying to skirt hostile border agents and dangerous boat trips by flying to their destinations. As a result, while human smuggling was a booming industry in Afghanistan last year, criminal rackets that trade in visas may be reaping a windfall this year.

“People now are not willing to take great risks,” said Tamin Omarzi, who works as a travel agent in Kabul’s largest mall. “They want to just travel with a passport, and don’t come back.”

Last year, along with more than 1 million refugees from Syria and Iraq, about 250,000 Afghans joined in the flood of migrants to Europe in hopes of securing asylum there. Many traveled through Iran and Turkey before crossing the Aegean Sea into Greece.

Overwhelmed by the influx, European leaders have shown less sympathy for Afghans then for refugees from Syria and Iraq. Much of Afghanistan, they say, remains under the control of a Western-backed government.

Last month, the European Union reached a deal with Turkey to send migrants back to refugee camps there, effectively severing the land route to Europe.

Since then, travel agents in Kabul report that requests for visas to Iran and Turkey are down by as much as 80 percent compared with last year at this time. A United Nations report released Thursday also concluded that the flow of migrants from Afghanistan has slowed while “people reconsider destinations and subsequent optimal routes.”

“There is currently lower movement but no dropoff in the people wanting to go,” said Alexander Mundt, assistant representative for protection at the United Nations Refugee Agency. “They are just exploring their options, their means, and the right moment to go.”

Plenty of Afghans are still on the move, however, in a mass migration that is raising new challenges for immigration agencies across the world.

Sulaiman Sayeedi, a travel agent in Kabul’s middle-class Wazir Akbar Khanneighborhood, said there has been a surge in demand for flights to India, Indonesia and central Asian countries such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Once they arrive, Afghan travelers often claim refugee status with the United Nations in hopes of being resettled. In India, for example, Afghan asylum applications have doubled in recent months, according to Mundt.

Other Afghans are flying to Moscow, believing that once there they can cross into Ukraine or even Belarus, and then move onward to EU countries

“Some people are coming in and just asking for tickets to anywhere they can get to,” Sayeedi said. “They just want a better life, a more civilized, modern life.”

To achieve that in the United States or Canada, Afghans’ gateway to the Western Hemisphere may be Cuba. Over the past two months, travel agents in Kabul have been surprised by Afghans showing up to their offices with Cuban visas, which are suspected of being issued in Iran or acquired on the black market.