Shababs on the Move: Ethnography on the Underground Migratory Routes from Sudan to the United Kingdom

The present research project aimed to investigate the struggles undocumented Sudanese migrant face to circumvent legal and geographical borders and to gain some form of citizenship. I focused on the kind of journeys, referred to as sombok, their precondition, narration and social practices implemented along the irregular routes from Sudan to the United Kingdom. In doing so, particular interest was paid to the production, circulation and resilience of migratory knowledge roaming in transnational networks and resulting in consequent mobility patterns, tenaciously and ceaselessly reproduced. Indeed, despite the increasing difficulties, due to massive investment in border patrolling and externalisation of controls, it is apparent that this does not deter people from migrating and neither does it prevent arrivals and movements in Europe.