For Ahmed, the decision was worth all the “sacrifices,” even the toughest ones. That is still how the 31-year-old Egyptian, who did not want to give his full name, feels. He recalls that upon arriving in Libya, his wife notified him she was pregnant. Ahmed had just left El-Mahalla El-Koubra, an industrial city North of Cairo, to embark on a visa-free journey to Europe.
“I could not go back to her, I had created my decision,” recounted the closely shaven man, bundled up in a puffer jacket. “Today, my daughter is 5 years old and I have never seen her. I have only heard her on the other finish of the phone. It is unbearable for me.”
On the evening of December 18, Ahmed sat on a bench in Place Jean-Jaurès in the Parisian banlieue of Saint-Denis, taking a moment to admire the Christmas decorations. At his side was his nephew Ali, 23, who had accompanied him on the long journey to France. Toobtainher, they spent several days crossing the Mediterranean in a boat bound for the Italian island of Lampedusa to “escape a life of misery,” as they put it.
For the past five years, thousands of Egyptians have fled their countest by sea, creating up one of the largest groups on migration routes. In 2022, they were the top nationality of origin among new arrivals in Europe, with 22,000 people recorded.
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