They dreamed big only to see their dreams shattered at the hands of an illegal migration gang.
The statement has almost grown into a cliché as more and more people fail in their risky adventures to illegally cross the sea aiming for a more prosperous life in Europe. The story has been told day after day, but recently it has perhaps taken a more dramatic turn as it is spreading among youngsters and teens who may know next to nothing about the dangers awaiting them.
On 15 November this year, a distress call was made on social media by three young men who had ended up stranded on a small island on the Evros River along the border separating Turkey and Greece. They had fallen prey to an illegal migration gang who had promised them a safe trip to Europe in return for a large sum of money.
The young men had ended up stranded in a no-go zone located on the Evros River. Their appeals on social media reached the Egyptian Embassy in Turkey, which coordinated with the Turkish authorities to save the young men from drowning but definitely not from fraud.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry then published an international warning about illegal migration, saying that the three young men had fallen victim to an illegal gang. The victims were charged huge sums of money in the hope that they would arrive safely in Europe, but instead they ended up losing both money and hope.
Other victims of the gang, the ministry said, had lost their lives since many of the boats that the gang had used to cross the Mediterranean have capsized in recent years, and hundreds have drowned as indicated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) since 2021.
The Evros River is notorious as a graveyard for illegal migrants. It stretches over 192 km, with dozens of small islands considered to be security no-go zones. Some of these islands are disputed between Turkey and Greece, and the latter imposes strict measures on its borders including a 35 km wall and surveillance cameras. Turkey cooperates with the European Union in the fight against people-smuggling under a 2016 agreement.
Such efforts seem to have failed to curb the growing number of migrant crossings, which increased by 40 per cent in 2025 compared to the previous year. The growth may be caused by improving weather conditions and the proliferation of smuggling gangs on social media, particularly Facebook and TikTok.
The story of the three young men is far from new, unfortunately, as similar events have been taking place for decades. Illegal migration has long been widespread, particularly from Egyptian villages suffering from high rates of unemployment, deprivation, and a lack of basic services.
The harsh living conditions of impoverished communities have long acted as a catalyst pushing many young men to look for a better life abroad but in some cases leading them to a tragic death at sea.
Today, this same phenomenon is increasingly unfolding among adolescents aged between nine and 17 years old who are still largely unaware of the dangers awaiting them. This sharp turn is particularly alarming, since children at this age literally know next to nothing about the countries they are heading for.
They have no skills, no proper education, no knowledge of the language — nothing that qualifies them for such a risky business. All they have is their lives, which they are ready to lose to the treacherous sea in the hope that they can imitate the success stories abroad that they have been following on social media.
REASONS FOR MIGRATION: The reasons children turn to illegal migration at such an early age have drawn the attention of experts and officials alike.
Ahmed (not his real name), a 14-year-old resident of Abanob in Assiut governorate, was caught along with others while trying to take the illegal route to Europe. He was caught along with his companions on their way to Salloum, where they were supposed to meet a broker and cross the border to Libya. The group planned to board a boat from Libya heading to Turkey and then to Italy.
Ahmed’s slender body may bespeak a harsh life, but it can hardly tell how big his dreams are, so big that they can hardly be realised in Egypt. Hailing from a family that can hardly make ends meet in the village of Abanob, Ahmed found it hard to resist the temptation of watching his neighbours prosper after members of their families had illegally migrated to Europe.
“They were well received. Some were enrolled in school, and some started working, taking up different jobs,” Ahmed told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Ahmed’s neighbours and relatives who had made it to Europe used to boast of their new lives on social media, posting photos on Facebook and TikTok in which they appeared to have a better life. Back in their villages, the financial status of their families improved in a way that no one could fail to notice.
“We were tempted to follow suit — after all, who doesn’t want a better life,” Ahmed exclaimed. The three young adolescents then decided to pursue their dreams, and they got in contact with those who had been through the experience for more information.
“We were told of a Facebook page called ‘Travelling to Libya’,” Ahmed said. The young enthusiasts soon accessed the page administrators and were instructed to go to Salloum for an interview with a man called Selim, probably the name of the broker responsible for taking them to Libya in return for LE15,000 per person.
But that was not the end of the story. Once they landed in Libya, they were told, their families would be asked to pay an extra LE170,000 as the fees needed to cross to Italy.
Ahmed’s companion, 16-year-old Attia (not his real name), said their families would not have objected since that was the only way to secure a better future.
“In Egypt, education does not really guarantee a future job or an apartment to get married,” Attia told the Weekly. “We’re left with no other choice apart from either staying at home, lingering in cafés without work, or taking the risk to go to Europe.”
Attia’s family would go for the second scenario, even if it involved risk. “Our families had to borrow and sell property to provide for the trip, in the hope that they would end up having a more prosperous life like their neighbours who had made it to Europe,” Attia said.
Fate, however, took a different turn. Ahmed and his companions were arrested on their way to Libya.
“We were not lucky enough to complete the trip,” Ahmed said. “It was simply God’s will.”
Both Ahmed and Attia would not hesitate to repeat the experience, however. After all, they insisted, “travelling to the far unknown is better than staying in the near unknown.”
“If we chose to stay in Egypt, securing a decent job and affording marriage will be difficult,” Attia insisted. “Even if death is the alternative, it will still be the will of God.”
FACTS AND FIGURES: Minors who migrate illegally typically pass through three stages.
The first is leaving Egypt, usually from Salloum. The second begins upon entering Libya, where migrants are gathered in rest houses along the Libyan coast. The third is boarding boats from departure points such as Al-Zawiya, Zuwara, Sabratha, Khums, and Karbouli in western Libya, or Tobruk and Benghazi in the east.
Organisations concerned with illegal migration have warned that Libya has ranked first in the number of migrants heading to Italy since the beginning of 2025. The Italian news agency Nova similarly estimates that approximately 14,755 illegal migrants arrived on Italian shores from Libya during the first half of 2024.
Imad Trabelsi, the interior minister of the Libyan Government of National Unity, told the press that “Libya has recently received about 2.5 million migrants.”
“About 90,000 to 120,000 migrants access Libya via the desert on a monthly basis,” he said, pointing out that his country “spent about $330 million on the anti-migration budget during the past year.”
“The first line of defence for Europe’s security starts from Libya’s borders with the Sahel and Sahara countries,” he added.
These efforts, however, are far from being foolproof. The European Centre for Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence Studies has stated that the period between 2009 and 2024 saw more than 71,200 irregular migrants accessing Libya from Egypt. About 63,700 of these then took the Eastern Mediterranean route via Turkey to Greece and 7,500 took the Central Mediterranean route via Libya to Italy, the centre said.
Mohamed Mahran, a professor of public international law and a member of the American and European Societies of International Law, told the Weekly that most illegal migrants are pushed by a strained economy and poverty.
“Some are also motivated by the success stories of their peers and driven by the overblown ambition that illegal migration will be the shortcut to a more prosperous life,” Mahran said.
The real catch, however, remains the fact that illegal migration is spreading among adolescents aged between nine and 17, an issue that needs an urgent solution. “This serious development reflects deeper economic, social, and psychological issues that need to be addressed comprehensively and integrally,” he warned.
Egypt has long been taking measures to curb illegal migration, which have helped reduce the number of those migrating from the governorates of Alexandria, Damietta, Matrouh and Kafr Al-Sheikh across the Mediterranean. The authorities are also exerting intensive efforts to secure the western Libyan border to curb the flow of illegal migration.
Those efforts, however, can be overpowered by social media, which has been providing a platform for migration brokers and smugglers who advertise their trips there to catch more customers and in defiance of the law. Many brokers announce their names and WhatsApp contacts on their social-media pages, sometimes even posting photos of the types of boats migrants could sale in.
“Immigration to Italy — Osama Zwara” is a case in point. The page has allegedly been attracting a large number of minors. It regularly publishes news of both success and failure stories, almost in defiance of illegal migration laws. It displays photos of boats and their crews, both those who made it successfully to Europe and those who were intercepted by coast guards.
Ironically, the page’s last post, dated 5 November, was a distress call urging the authorities to hand over the bodies of five young Egyptians who had drowned near the Libyan shores as they were sailing to Italy. The five young men, who were from the village of Talbana in Daqahliya, were on a small boat that capsized on its illegal route to Europe either due to bad weather or for being overloaded.
“Saleh Al-Jaafari — Travelling to Europe” is the name of another notorious Facebook page promoting illegal migration among minors via the Libyan border, again allegedly attracting a number of potential illegal migrants.
Official figures indicating a rise in illegal migrants would thus seem like an expected outcome. According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR’s 2024 statistics, more than 36,000 migrants reached the Mediterranean region in Europe between January and March 2023, nearly double the 16,596 recorded in the same period of 2022.
In 2023, over 98 per cent of arrivals came by sea and only two per cent by land, the highest sea-arrival share since 2016. An estimated 522 migrants died or went missing along the way.
During the first half of 2025, up to 2 July, the Italian authorities recorded a 15 per cent rise in sea arrivals. Figures show that the Libyan coast remains the main departure point, with 27,001 migrants reaching Italy and confirming the continued escalation of smuggling networks operating in Libya.
ILLEGAL MIGRATION: International legislation criminalises illegal immigration and imposes penalties on smugglers.
Anti-Illegal Migration and Smuggling Law 82/2016 criminalises human traffickers or those helping people illegally migrate. “Higher penalties are imposed in cases where the victims are minors or when migration results in death or injury,” Mahran maintained.
“Egyptian law penalises parents or guardians who expose their children’s lives to danger,” he added, explaining that “Law 12/1996, as amended by Law 126/2008, stipulates that parents exposing their children to danger or neglecting their duties towards them is penalised by law.”
“It’s sad that some parents agree to let their children take such risky journeys and sometimes even encourage them to do so, when they are fully aware of the dangers,” Mahran said. “It’s like an investment for them: they pay large sums of money to smugglers in the hope that their children will send back that money back when they work and settle in Europe.”
Not all families are the same, of course, and there are stories of minor migrants being intercepted by police guards at the request of their families.
Child and adolescent psychiatrist Mona Lamloum insists that the issue goes deeper than “a passing desire or blind imitation”.
“Most of those children have been working since an early age, leaving school to work and provide for their impoverished families,” Lamloum explained. “For them, travelling abroad sounds like a good outlet.”
For young dreamers, the dangers of the sea may seem to pale beside the wealth that illegal migration promises. “Observing peers making wealth via illegal migration is too great a temptation for some youngsters to resist,” Lamloum explained.
“For them, staying at home is almost equal to drowning on board sailing boats, with both fates being harsh. After all, some desperate people may think that death is the only way out of a miserable life.”
Eliminating the reasons that cause that misery could thus be the right way to tackle the issue.
“Restoring hope is the first step on the right track,” Lamloum maintained. “Child labour must be reduced or reduced to the minimum, being allowed only in some necessary cases and without school drop-outs,” she said. “After all, education is the first line of defence against despair.”
In the same vein, Lamloum suggested that the government should work on designing more programmes that support poor families. “Providing a dignified life to parents would create a healthy environment fostering hope instead of despair,” she went on. “Otherwise, children could turn to risky plans outside their country, even if that costs them their lives.”
The Ministry of Migration is implementing awareness campaigns targeting 1,800 mothers and minors in different governorates to acquaint them with the dangers of illegal migration. Meanwhile, community schoolteachers in Luxor have been trained to raise awareness of the phenomenon.
The ministry warned people not to get hooked by smuggling networks and called for young people not to risk their lives in illegal attempts to cross the border.
“There must be a comprehensive national strategy that includes intensive awareness campaigns targeting families directly to clarify the real risks and legal penalties,” Mahran noted.
“Addressing economic pressures by creating job opportunities, offering youth vocational training, and supporting poor families are essential steps towards tackling the issue.”
Developing educational programmes that equip young people with life and vocational skills that can open up real job prospects is also crucial. At the same time, the role of religious institutions and civil society must be strengthened to raise awareness and provide psychological and social follow-up for families who have gone through the experience, as well as for returning children, Mahran concluded.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 December, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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