By Declan Walsh and Burg Migheizil
In the raggedy fishing village of Burg Migheizil on Egypt's north coast, restless teenage boys are plotting their escape, lured by illusory dreams of money and glamour.
One 15-year-old said that five of his friends had already made it to Italy after perilous sea journeys. Some worked for the smugglers, piloting boats filled with paying migrants. Others paid their way .
Nearly all sent, on Facebook, envy-inducing photos and bravura accounts of new lives: money, girls, flashy new sneakers. The teenager, who asked not to be identified, said he intends to leave soon, too.
"Facebook is a real issue," said Viviana Valastro, director of child immigrant services at Save the Children Italy. "Even if an unaccompanied child is living in bad conditions, they present a positive picture to their friends. They want to show they are successful."
A sudden surge in the number of Egyptian teenagers fleeing to Europe, most of them headed for Italy, has added to the exodus across the Mediterranean from the beaches of North Africa to Europe this summer. At least 1,150 unaccompanied Egyptian minors landed in Italy in the first five months of this year, compared with 94 over the same period in 2015.
Experts are struggling to understand what lies behind the soaring figures.
Egypt does not suffer a raging civil war or debilitating poverty. Instead they point to a crippling cocktail of factors: A stalling local economy; permissive Italian laws that indirectly encourage child migration; a proliferation of smuggling networks; and El Dorado-like examples of other Egyptian teenagers who have made it. Whatever the reasons, teenage boys account for a growing and unusually high proportion of migrants from Egypt -- about two-thirds in 2015, up from about a quarter in 2011.
Some villages are being emptied of their young boys, often at the behest of their own families. The teenagers are oblivious to the calamitous images of death at sea-capsizing boats, bodies floating to shore. Instead, they fixate on images of apparent success sent back via social media -- even if those images often mask a grittier and more dangerous reality that includes exploitation, petty crime and prostitution.
For restless young men, little can deter their dreams of flight. Ehab
Nasser, 21, said he hated his job as a fisherman. Life at sea was cruel
and lonely, he said. Two years ago he smuggled himself into Greece.
That trip ended in a Greek detention center, and with eventual deportation back to Egypt. But he will try again soon. His eyes lit up as he showed a picture on Facebook of his neighbor Ismail, now in London, with a wad of cash, his thumb raised, while casually dragging on a cigarette. "That's what I want," Nasser said.
In the raggedy fishing village of Burg Migheizil on Egypt's north coast, restless teenage boys are plotting their escape, lured by illusory dreams of money and glamour.
One 15-year-old said that five of his friends had already made it to Italy after perilous sea journeys. Some worked for the smugglers, piloting boats filled with paying migrants. Others paid their way .
Nearly all sent, on Facebook, envy-inducing photos and bravura accounts of new lives: money, girls, flashy new sneakers. The teenager, who asked not to be identified, said he intends to leave soon, too.
"Facebook is a real issue," said Viviana Valastro, director of child immigrant services at Save the Children Italy. "Even if an unaccompanied child is living in bad conditions, they present a positive picture to their friends. They want to show they are successful."
A sudden surge in the number of Egyptian teenagers fleeing to Europe, most of them headed for Italy, has added to the exodus across the Mediterranean from the beaches of North Africa to Europe this summer. At least 1,150 unaccompanied Egyptian minors landed in Italy in the first five months of this year, compared with 94 over the same period in 2015.
Experts are struggling to understand what lies behind the soaring figures.
Egypt does not suffer a raging civil war or debilitating poverty. Instead they point to a crippling cocktail of factors: A stalling local economy; permissive Italian laws that indirectly encourage child migration; a proliferation of smuggling networks; and El Dorado-like examples of other Egyptian teenagers who have made it. Whatever the reasons, teenage boys account for a growing and unusually high proportion of migrants from Egypt -- about two-thirds in 2015, up from about a quarter in 2011.
Some villages are being emptied of their young boys, often at the behest of their own families. The teenagers are oblivious to the calamitous images of death at sea-capsizing boats, bodies floating to shore. Instead, they fixate on images of apparent success sent back via social media -- even if those images often mask a grittier and more dangerous reality that includes exploitation, petty crime and prostitution.
That trip ended in a Greek detention center, and with eventual deportation back to Egypt. But he will try again soon. His eyes lit up as he showed a picture on Facebook of his neighbor Ismail, now in London, with a wad of cash, his thumb raised, while casually dragging on a cigarette. "That's what I want," Nasser said.
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