Sudan mourns 51 youths drowned in attempt to reach Greece

Sudan has been shocked and saddened by reports on Saturday that 51 Sudanese youths drowned while trying to reach the Greece across the Mediterranean, in one of the most painful recent disasters associated with migration. The exact details of the tragedy are still unclear; however, thousands of Sudanese are among the migrants who attempt to cross from Libya to Europe using small and often unseaworthy vessels, with more than 4,000 Sudanese citizens registered by the UNHCR as arriving in Greece by sea in 2025.

A relative of a number of victims told Radio Dabanga that most of the victims hail from the areas of El Usaylat, Dbeibeh, El Ilfon, Kassala, and Omdurman, where the list included many names of well-known families and families in those areas, which doubled the size of the tragedy and its great social impact.

Malik Dejaoui, head of the Organisation for Combating Illegal Migration and Voluntary Return, told Radio Dabanga that the tragedy represents a new link in the “chain of tragedies associated with illegal migration and human trafficking”, blaming smuggling networks that “exploit young people’s ambitions and dreams of reaching Europe through death-threatening routes”.

The Libyan city of Tobruk is the closest starting point for migrants’ sea journeys to reach Greece, he said, stressing that the organization has repeatedly warned of the danger of these routes, but “there is no life for those who are calling.”

Dejoui reiterated his call to the youth and their families to voluntarily return to stable areas inside Sudan, instead of being dragged into the illusions of smugglers, while at the same time sending an urgent message to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Expatriates Service on the need to urgently intervene and develop more effective policies to curb this phenomenon.

The latest tragedy, according to observers, opens the door once again to serious questions about the reasons why Sudanese youth continue to die at sea, at a time when the country needs their energies to build the interior.

Attempts to reach Europe

According to figures by the UN refugee agency UNHCR on September 14, a total of 28,000 refugees have arrived in Greece by sea thus far in 2025. The UNHCR further shows that effective July 31, Sudanese constituted more than 4,000 sea arrivals in the Hellenic Republic.