E-Paper
With a little help from AI, Gaza to Europe via jet ski: How a man escaped devastation for hope
Muahmmad Abu Dakha failed 10 times in trying to cross over with smugglers from Libya. That's when he made his own plan.
It took almost a year, several thousand dollars and, of course, a risk to life, but it was sheer ingenuity, and some Artificial Intelligence (AI), that eventually ensured Muhammad Abu Dakha, 31, could escaped war-torn Gaza to reach relative safety in Europe.
The Palestinian tried China first, but the systematic method of applying for asylum did not work as as fast as he wanted to.
Devastation by Israel's assault had hit grave proportions. Nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in what began as Israel's retaliation at Palestinian militant group Hamas over an attack in October 2023.
Abu Dakha crossed the border point from Rafah in the Palestinian territories into Egypt in April of 2024, paying $5,000, Reuters reported.
From there, he said, he initially went to China. He hoped to win asylum, but returned to Egypt, via Malaysia and Indonesia. He showed Reuters his email exchange with the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC) from August and September 2024.
He chose a more perilous, though very popular, route instead — via Libya, on a boat to the Europe, mostly Italy. It did not deter him that human rights groups and the UN say thousands of migrants are exploited by traffickers who promise spots on the boats. Data also shows that at least 47,000 boat migrants managed to reach Italy till September in this year alone, mostly starting their final journeys from Libya and Tunisia.
Abu Dhaka, who documented his journey on video, audio, and in stills, thought he had a chance like them.
He failed 10 times in trying to cross over with smugglers.
That's when he made his own plan.
He bought a used Yamaha jet ski for about $5,000 through a Libyan online marketplace, and invested another $1,500 in equipment, including a GPS device, a satellite phone, and life jackets.
Two other Palestinians, 27-year-old Diaa and 23-year-old Bassem, joined in. A dinghy with extra supplies was attached to the jet ski.
They set off from the Libyan port of al-Khoms, which is about 350 km from Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost island, of measured in a straight line. Since they did not have expert help of smugglers, they relied on the AI tool ChatGPT to calculate how much fuel they would need for the trip.
He said he drove the jet ski for about 12 hours. There was a Tunisian patrol boat that they dodged. Despite AI's help, they ran out of fuel some 20 km short of Lampedusa, a Mediterranean island in the autonomous region of Sicily in Italy.
But they'd reached close enough, and ended up on the island on August 18 after being picked up by a Romanian patrol boat taking part in a Frontex (European Border and Coast Guard Agency) mission, a spokesperson for the agency said.
"The way they came was pretty unique," said Filippo Ungaro, spokesperson for UNHCR Italy.
"It was a very difficult journey, but we were adventurers. We had strong hope that we would arrive, and God gave us strength," Bassem, who did not share his surname, told the news agency.
Abu Dhaka had a life in Gaza before the latest Israeli assault that would be considered comfortable.
His father, Intesar Khouder Abu Dakha, speaking from Gaza, said, “He had an internet shop, and his work, thank God, was comfortable financially and everything. He had built things up, and it all collapsed.”
Lampedusa was not his destination, though. He wanted to get away from the coast, further inside Europe to more safety.
Officials took him and the two others to mainland Sicily, and then they were being transferred to Genoa but escaped from the bus. A spokesperson for the Italian interior ministry said it had no specific information about their movements.
Abu Dakha said he then took a plane from Genoa to Brussels in Belgium. He shared with Reuters a boarding card in his name for a low-cost flight from Genoa to Brussels Charleroi, dated August 23.
He then travelled to Germany, first by train to Cologne, then to Osnabrueck in Lower Saxony, where a relative picked him up by car and took him to Bramsche, a nearby town.
He has applied for asylum, but no date is set yet for a hearing. With no job or income, he is currently in a local centre for asylum-seekers.
Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees declined to comment on his case, citing privacy.
Back in Gaza, Abu Dakha's family remains in a tent camp in Khan Younis. He hopes to bring over his wife and two children, aged four and six. "That's why I risked my life on a jet ski," he said. "Without my family, life has no meaning."
