Hoping to secure a better future
The youth of Gaza flee the hell of unemployment and poverty, only to be swallowed up by the sea
Muhammad shows a picture on his mobile phone that he received from his brother Yunus in Libya before his death showing the miserable living conditions he and other aspiring emigrants found themselves in.
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Samira Al-Shaer lost her son Younis by drowning.
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Samira Al-Shaer next to a picture of her son Younis.
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Younis emigrated from the Gaza Strip with 10 other relatives and friends, hoping for a better life in Europe, but he died by drowning 10 months later, returning as a lifeless body to the poor and besieged Strip.
In mid-December, the corpses of Younis Al-Shaer (21 years old) arrived in Gaza via the Rafah border crossing, and seven young men from the Al-Shaer and Qeshta families, while three others remained missing.
Two months ago, the body of Younes Al-Shaer was found near the shores of Tunisia, after a small rubber boat sank that carried him and 13 others from Libya to Italy, heading to Belgium.
Last February, after completing two academic years majoring in accounting at a local university in Gaza, the poet left for Egypt, where he stayed for two months with his relatives before moving through smugglers to Libya, where they spent seven months waiting for an opportunity to complete their journey.
In Libya, the poet and his relatives were subjected to the theft of their money, personal belongings, and mobile phones, and they were forced to sleep for weeks in places “not suitable for animals,” according to his brother Muhammad.
"A mafia group linked to smugglers kidnapped my brother Yunus in Libya for two weeks, and we paid a ransom of $1,500," Mohammed, 34, explains.
The young man, whose feet were amputated as a result of an Israeli bombing five years ago, added: “The smugglers took 6,000 dollars from Yunus and everyone with him. The smugglers deceived them, and they did not find a ship, shelter, food or drink. The journey was cruel and humiliating, all of it was torture and humiliation.”
Dozens of deaths
During the last decade, dozens of Palestinians died in similar drowning incidents during attempts to immigrate illegally to Europe and Turkey, and some of them left Gaza through underground tunnels that were spread many years ago on the Gaza Strip border with Egypt before they were demolished or closed by the Egyptian army.
migration drive
Although there is no official statistics on the number of immigrants from the Strip, “more than 200,000 people, most of them young people, have immigrated permanently or temporarily from the Strip since 2007,” when the “Hamas” movement took control of the government in Gaza, which prompted many to search for job opportunities and a better life in the outside.
According to the Masarat Center for Human Rights, about 36,000 people have left Gaza in the past five years in an effort to immigrate abroad.
In 2015, one million people crossed the Mediterranean in search of sanctuary in Europe, before this number decreased to about 95,000 in 2020, and then began to rise again, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Unemployment and poverty
“Unemployment and poverty are two main drivers of youth migration from the Gaza Strip,” says Samir Zaqout, deputy director of Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights.
Zaqout explained to "Agence France Presse" that "80% of young university graduates in the Gaza Strip are unemployed," in light of the general unemployment rate of more than 50%.
About 2.3 million people live in the Gaza Strip, about two-thirds of whom are poor, including 223 thousand unemployed, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics data for the second quarter of 2022.
Israel has imposed a tight land, sea and air blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007.
Sadnes
The cost of Yunus' trip, part of which the family contributed, amounted to approximately $9,000, six of which were paid to smugglers.
After months of "agony and anxiety", Yunus' death was an "earthquake" for his mother, Samira al-Shaer.
The bereaved mother confirms: "I knew the dangers of emigration. I gave up because of his insistence and insistence. Every day I expected the news of his death to come to me."
In her modest home in Rafah, Samira sat surrounded by her relatives, looking very sad as she embraced a picture of her son.
His mother had always hoped that his "harsh" journey would culminate in his arrival in Belgium to live a "better life."
She explains: «He used to say to me: Here in Gaza there is no work, no marriage, no home, do you like the state of the country?
I want to immigrate to help you and my brothers live a better life.”
She says, "I wish he had been imprisoned. He always told me, 'Don't worry, God willing, we will arrive'" in Europe.
The mother seems convinced that "lack of work here (in Gaza) and poverty prompted Yunus to emigrate, and he has been an orphan of his father since he was 10 years old." However, Yunus always reassured his mother and indicated that his relatives "from Gaza arrived in Belgium before him and worked there."
After 20 days of losing contact with Younes, the family contacted the smugglers via Facebook.
Muhammad says, "They used to tell us that he was fine, that he was imprisoned, and they lied to us."
Muhammad Al-Shaer does not hide that he is "against youth migration" from Gaza, while his mother, Samira, seemed convinced that "the youth in Gaza have no choice but to resort to drugs or emigrate by sea."
Muhammad says with a sigh: "They found his passport among the corpses that the sea washed towards the beach, and it was wrapped in nylon."
And Muhammad adds, "He dreamed of forming himself by getting married, owning a house, and finding a job opportunity. European nationality was not his only concern. Yunus' dream was lost."
• During the last decade, dozens of Palestinians died in drowning accidents during attempts to immigrate illegally to Europe and Turkey, and some of them left Gaza through tunnels with Egypt.
• Although there is no official statistics on the number of immigrants from the Strip, "more than 200 thousand people, the majority of whom are young people, have migrated permanently or temporarily from the Strip since 2007 in search of work."
Earthquake
The cost of Yunus' trip, part of which the family contributed, amounted to approximately $9,000, six of which were paid to smugglers.
After months of "agony and anxiety", Yunus' death was an "earthquake" for his mother, Samira al-Shaer.
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