Mediterranean Odyssey: Egyptian’s 40-Hour Swim for a Better Life

The adventure began in 2020. Rafie Nadi left his hometown of Minya, on the west bank of the Nile (Egypt), abandoned his dream of studying medicine to find a job in Europe, which would allow him to support his parents and eight young siblings. He arrived in Morocco. One day, he decided to leave the Fnideq coast (Morocco) to reach Europe by swimming and see his mother again. He took a 17-year-old friend on this perilous journey in mid-July 2025. Together, they were supposed to swim to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. After four unsuccessful attempts to cross the Ceuta border fence, Nadi and his friend had devised an alternative plan, raising funds to buy wetsuits, inflatable buoys, and flippers. According to them, this was the best option, since neither of them had 3,000 or 4,000 euros to give to the smugglers for the crossing to Europe.

After weeks of training, hours of swimming in the sea, Nadi and his friend evaded the vigilance of the soldiers on the beach, jumped into the water, and began swimming. But things did not go as planned. While the forecasts had predicted a calm sea, the waves were high, pushing them back and dragging them deeper into the Mediterranean. The sea separated the two friends. Nadi initially expressed fear before beginning to scan the horizon, seeing only kilometers of water and no land in sight. He let himself be carried by the currents, conserving his energy to frantically wave his arms in front of any ship he might encounter. Lost and exhausted after two nights and another full day at sea, he spotted a boat heading towards him.

After more than 40 hours in the Mediterranean, supported only by a buoy and flippers, a family saved Nadi’s life just in time. "I started waving my arms. [...] I started swimming towards them, they threw me a rope and I grabbed it. They hoisted me up, gave me food, water, and clothes," he recounts to the Guardian. Those on board the yacht had found him about 25 km south of the Spanish town of Benalmádena, on the Costa del Sol. He would have drifted more than 100 km from his starting point. At that point, Nadi was no longer sure he could have kept swimming much longer. "If it hadn’t been for that boat, I don’t know if I could have kept swimming," he said, his voice full of emotion. "I am so grateful to the family who saved me."

The family was joined at sea by a maritime rescue vessel. They handed Nadi over to the police and the Red Cross. Shortly afterwards, the Red Cross members told him that his friend had also been found, safe and sound, off the coast near Málaga. Nadi and his friend finally reached Spain. He talks about the feelings he had at sea. "I was terrified of dying at sea. I hoped that God would save me or that I would find a boat close enough to rescue me," Nadi recounts. "I thought about my mother, whom I hadn’t seen in five years, and the fact that I wanted to see her again before dying. I prayed to God not to let me die so that my mother wouldn’t suffer. My family knew I had tried to cross the wall, but I hadn’t told them about my plan to swim."

After two weeks in a Red Cross-run camp, the young Egyptian was released due to the lack of a repatriation agreement between Spain and Egypt. Under international law, he has the right to apply for asylum, a process that can take years in Spain. He is starting a new life on the Iberian Peninsula, but it is difficult to find his place in the sun. "I thought I would start working as soon as I arrived in Spain, but the reality is different. I discovered that this situation in Europe was not worth all these sufferings. If you have papers, yes, but without papers, it’s very difficult," laments Nadi. "I don’t know when I’ll have papers - but I want to look for a job, any job."