Three migrants sped into Europe on a jet ski they bought for £3,600 after a 12-hour journey across the Mediterranean from Africa. Muhammad Abu Dakha, a 31-year-old Palestinian, escaped war-torn Gaza with his two friends and initially travelled to China, where his asylum bid was rejected, before returning to Egypt, where he attempted to make contact with human smuggling gangs. After a number of failed attempts to cross into Europe through the criminal networks, however, Mr Abu Dakha decided to forge his own way.
“That’s when I started thinking of a new idea, the jet-ski idea,” he told Reuters. “At the beginning, I tried the jet-ski that one of my relatives had, and I liked the idea. So I started planning for it.” The 31-year-old bought a secondhand Yamaha jet-ski through a Libyan online marketplace and spent another £1,100 on equipment, including lifejackets, GPS and a satellite phone. Alongside his friends, Diaa, 27, and Bassem, 23, he drove the jet-ski for 12 hours from Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa, towing a dinghy carrying extra supplies.
The three men reportedly used ChatGPT to work out how much fuel they would need for the journey, but ultimately ran out around 20 miles off the Italian coast.
After calling for help on the satellite phone, they were picked up by a Romanian patrol boat, working as part of the European Union’s Frontex border control mission.
“It was a difficult journey, but we were adventurers,” Mr Bassem said. “We had strong hope that we would arrive, and God gave us strength.”
Filippo Ungaro, spokesperson for UNHCR Italy confirmed that authorities recorded the migrants’ arrival in Italy after they were rescued from a jet-ski off Lampedusa. “The way they came was pretty unique,” he added.
Once ashore, the three Palestinians escaped by hiding in the bushes during a bus transfer from Sicily to Genoa, before Mr Abu Dakha caught a plane from Genoa to Brussels.
He said he then travelled to Germany by train and was picked up by a relative, who drove him to Bramche, a town in Lower Saxony.
Mr Abu Dakha said he has applied for asylum and is waiting for a court to hear his application, with a hearing date yet to be set. He is reportedly living in a local centre for asylum seekers.
The Italian Ministry said it had no specific information about the three men’s movements and Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees declined to comment on the case for privacy reasons.
The 31-year-old’s family live in a tent camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Mr Abu Dakha said, having moved there after their home was destroyed in the Israel-Hamas war, which has seen more than 64,000 Palestinians lose their lives.