On September 21, 2016 a boat carrying at least 400 migrants sunk off the coast of Rashid, Egypt killing over 200 people including 43 Egyptians. While sea tragedies like this one are not new to Egypt, this event in particular was significant because it highlighted the trend of increasing numbers of Egyptian nationals migrating irregularly to Europe, sparking a national conversation on this issue. In both official and public discourse, this highly visible and well documented accident raised questions on accountability and the role of the state in this phenomenon. I plan to use this incident as a case study in my research for understanding the discursive dynamics of the increase of cross-Mediterranean migration by Egyptians. In particular, I will investigate how these individuals have been represented by official and unofficial narratives and the role of the state in shaping public discourse. This paper is concerned with identifying and drawing connections between the hegemonic discourse and how it relates to Egyptian state-society relations in the post-2011 era. The relationship between the discourse of the Egyptian irregular migrant and the development of recent migration and security policy measures will also be critically examined. I aim to examine the discourse of the current irregular migration wave in the Egyptian context and analyze the dynamics that create and sustain the representation of the Egyptian clandestine. I will describe and assess how the image of the Egyptian irregular migrant subject has come to be represented by analyzing official statements, media and cultural productions. How and why this particular image has been cultivated and sustained is a key notion that this research aims to explore. In order to do so, questions of power relations between the state and the individual and state accountability and responsibility toward its citizens are central in explaining the rise of hegemonic discourse regarding the decision by Egyptians to embark on the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. Studies on how a country’s media covers their own nationals migrating through clandestine means are limited. Often studies on media discourse regarding migration are situated from a perspective of countries of the global north that determine how the immigrant from the global south coming into the developed receiving country is portrayed, usually as a threat. This research is unique in that it approaches a growing current phenomenon in the context of its own local media and cultural productions.