Moonlit beaches stretching off the coast of Alexandria and secluded indentations along Libya’s farthest eastern coastline are now home to significant numbers of small boats that carry not only the aspirations of their passengers but also an economic burden from within the country. Over the last few years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of Egyptians attempting to leave Egypt for Europe; many have made this perilous journey (mostly through Libya) in search of job opportunities in Italy and Greece.
The increase has been driven by factors that have decimated any hope of a better future in Egypt, including chronic poverty that has persisted for over 40 years and recent geopolitical events that have further compounded the situation. The Egyptian economy has endured an avalanche of external shocks since 2022, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and now by the war in Ukraine, which have caused the prices of basic goods to escalate and erode the real incomes of Egyptians. Almost all households are relying on migration and sending remittances back to Egypt to survive, and many families send remittances back to Egypt to cover the cost of necessities while relatives work abroad.
The statistics on how many Egyptians are crossing the Mediterranean illegally paint a grim picture. There were thousands of crossings by Egyptian nationals in 2025, and they constituted the majority of all illegal crossings from all countries. However, those statistics do not accurately reflect the complexity of the migratory experience of these individuals; there are many people who may have travelled legally to work or study, some who travelled through a traditional form of migration using a tourist visa, and a significant portion who joined smuggling networks to undertake a much more dangerous sea journey.
There are two ramifications from this migratory phenomenon. First, it serves as an immediate source of financial relief for families who often earn substantially higher wages working overseas than they would have earned working in their home country. Second, Egypt is losing valuable human capital (doctors, engineers, and IT professionals), which exacerbates the current environment and creates long-term challenges for economic recovery and public service delivery.
Egypt’s migration issues date back well beyond present-day challenges as a historic migration destination and the most heavily populated Arab state in the world (nearly 18 million people in 2017). The historical development of Egypt has since provided significant amounts of labour to the region and served as a passage for millions travelling through Egypt into Europe and beyond. The current migration flows from Egypt occur as a result of both short-term economic pain and long-term demographic shifts in the population, indicating a structural change in both the economy and the population over time.
Egypt’s future will be determined by three local, regional, and international responses: a local response will be created from domestic policies that are developed to create decent local employment for the migrant population; a regional response will involve working together to dismantle the existing system of smuggling pathways while protecting migrants’ rights; and the third international response will involve the development of policies to combat the root causes of migration, such as poverty, conflict, and lack of opportunity, and not simply focus on controlling migration through border enforcement.
Every small boat that leaves the Egyptian shoreline today embodies not only an individual risk taken by the migrant seeking to leave their circumstances behind, but also a national dilemma as to whether Egypt can continue to secure its people’s protection within its borders or if the future of Egypt is to be written abroad.
