In late August, the Ocean Viking, a civil rescue ship, was patrolling the central Mediterranean Sea when it was hit by a barrage of bullets. The Libyan Coast Guard fired hundreds of rounds at the humanitarian boat, many of them at head height, breaking windows, damaging the ship and terrorising those onboard. This included the crew and 87 people who had been rescued earlier that day from two boats in distress.
The assault, which lasted around 20 minutes, is unprecedented. The Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) has fired ‘warning shots’ into the air or water around rescue ships on multiple occasions before, including the Ocean Viking in 2023, but shots which appear aimed to kill or injure have never happened before. The incident, which took place in international waters, has led to renewed calls for the European Union to end its working relationship with border forces in Libya.
In 2023, a European Commission official, speaking at a public event, identified direct fire as a ‘red line’ that would have consequences for the EU-Libya partnership. But in response to a request for comment, the commission says Libyan authorities are investigating the incident and that they are “not at the stage” of discussing consequences.
The EU has spent millions of euros on its partnership with Libya over the last ten years, which it relies on for external assistance with its border control policies. Now, critics are asking: where is the red line? And how far will things have to escalate for the EU to break off its partnership with Libya?
A lucrative partnership
Since 2008, Italy, and later the EU, have provided Libyan authorities with millions of euros in support, as well as training, boats and other resources. Since 2017, this support has increased substantially.
This includes the project Support for Integrated Border and Migration Management in Libya (SIBMMIL), a partnership worth tens of millions deployed in conjunction with the Italian Ministry of the Interior. It also includes a European Border Assistance Mission. EUBAM’s 26 staff members are stationed in Libya, coordinate with various Libyan authorities on border matters, and provide technical advice and equipment for “effective border monitoring”. Apart from these flagship programmes, there are other specific EU ‘actions’ worth millions that pay for training and the development of Libya’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre.
This ongoing support has, to date, not been deterred by the extremely well-documented abuse and violence migrants in Libya suffer at the hands of Libyan groups, including state entities. This includes routine kidnapping, forced labour, extortion, sexual violence, torture and mass executions.
“It is really important to understand that Libya is not a stable partner,” said Marc Tilley, an independent migration analyst. “It is a fragmented, volatile state where the line between state actors and armed militia groups is virtually non-existent.”
The EU has also not been put off by the actions or character of the LCG, a nebulous entity that has received significant European support. It is at least partially made up of militias and criminal groups, the latter of which the commission itself has acknowledged. The LCG is responsible for pulling people back to Libya by force as they try to leave for Europe, at the EU’s behest and often with the collaboration of Frontex, the EU’s border agency.
“Europe provides the training, the equipment and the guidance, then turns a blind eye while we are tortured and imprisoned,” said Lam Magok, a representative of the migrant-led group Refugees in Libya and himself a survivor of torture in Libya.
Commission officials have acknowledged that it is essentially incapable of enforcing human rights safeguards in Libya
When pressed on this, the commission has often stated that it was concerned about reports of abuse, that it would investigate the incidents, and that it would attempt to remind Libyan authorities about their human rights obligations.
“We try to reach out to the Libyan authorities, we try to raise it, we try to make them aware that this is not the way you treat people,” a spokesperson for the commission told me in 2023.
The commission has also been known to narrowly interpret the possible links between its support and the human rights abuses committed by the LCG, arguing, for example, that abuses are not committed directly using EU-funded equipment. That same spokesperson said in 2023 they were “not really aware of information” that abuses had been committed using EU-funded vessels during rescue operations, yet recognised that abuses often take place in detention centres afterwards.
Commission officials have acknowledged that it is essentially incapable of enforcing human rights safeguards in Libya. Despite this, the co-operation has continued. In June this year the EU Border Assistance Mission in Libya was extended for another two years.
Diana Volpe, a migration researcher with the University of Oxford, said the EU is reluctant to pull back from its partnership with the LCG for several reasons. First, the relationship allows the EU to exert some amount of control in a region where the rule of law and a unified government remain largely absent.
The EU are eager to limit migration across the Mediterranean any way they can, said Volpe, and the LCG is “a very willing collaborator on this form of migration control”. Finally, in a narrow sense, the arrangement works: “They keep giving money, and Libyan militias keep doing pullbacks for them,” Volpe said.
A line crossed
On top of the abuses committed against people in Libya itself, the Libyan authorities have become increasingly aggressive towards European-flagged humanitarian vessels.
These vessels, known informally as the ‘civil fleet’, conduct search and rescue operations in the waters between Europe and Libya. In recent years, LCG vessels have repeatedly threatened and violently interfered with civil fleet vessels and the people they are attempting to rescue.
Nathan Akehurst
In 2022, the NGO Sea-Watch said the LCG had threatened to down a crewed monitoring aircraft over international waters. Since 2017, but increasingly in recent years, the LCG has also threatened civil fleet vessels during rescue operations with ‘warning shots’.
Volpe said the LCG is incentivised to act this way by the EU and their own profit motives. “The Libyan Coast Guard is not a real coast guard, it's an ensemble of different militias,” said Volpe. These militias benefit from the EU’s material support to detain people, as well as from the extortion and exploitation of those same people once onshore.
“[Given that] NGOs are the only entities not collaborating in this business, obviously the LCG don't like them,” Volpe said.
Two days later, we were still finding bullets lodged throughout the ship
In June 2023, three months after the LCG fired warning shots over the Ocean Viking, the EU donated two more patrol vessels. The civil fleet NGO SOS Méditerranée, which operates the Ocean Viking, said they believe the LCG crew was sailing on one of these boats when they opened fire on the Ocean Viking in late August.
“We were attacked by the Libyan Coast Guard under intense gunfire,” said one British crew member over Whatsapp. “Hundreds of rounds were fired directly at us. Crew members were pinned to the floor, with bullets flying over our heads. Even two days later, we were still finding bullets lodged throughout the ship. We were lucky to escape alive and uninjured.”
Another crew member described how the LCG crew shouted obscenities at the Ocean Viking over the radio during the assault, and demanded the Ocean Viking head north immediately.
“We have crossed a line,” said French MEP Mounir Satouri in a press briefing on the assault. He and other MEPs wrote to the commission in the days that followed, questioning its stance on the incident and asking if it would reassess the relationship given what happened.
“What would have to occur for the commission to end all forms of support to the Libyan Coast Guard?” asked German MEP Erik Marquardt.
So far, the Commission has yet to give a public answer to this question.
Consequences pending
At an event hosted by members of the Greens/EFA parliamentary group in Brussels in late 2023, a senior commission official for migration said that, in contrast to warning shots, direct firing would be a “different story”. According to two people present, who preferred to remain anonymous due to their job roles, the official stated that direct shots would “certainly have consequences” for the relationship between the EU and Libya on migration. Taken together, these comments suggest that the commission at the time considered direct fire a ‘red line’.
When asked if the comments reflect the commission’s current stance, a spokesperson said, “we are not at the stage of talking about potential consequences of this reported incident.”
The spokesperson said the issue had been raised by the EU delegation in Libya, who had “urged” the Libyan authorities to take measures to comply with national and international obligations. The Libyan authorities informed them that they are investigating the incident themselves.
“Partner countries remain sovereign countries and responsible for their law enforcement bodies,” said the spokesperson. “Allegations of wrongdoing by security forces should be duly investigated by the competent national authorities.” The spokesperson also said they would await the outcome before further assessing the situation further. They did not answer whether they were considering suspending cooperation during the investigation.
They also emphasised the EU’s commitment to international and human rights law, which the EU provides training on for the LCG, and that the commission would continue to engage with Libyan authorities to improve conditions for migrants.
Satouri said that in supporting the LCG, and failing to stop the abuses it commits, the EU is complicit in them.
“Not only do we fund this and let it happen, but we protect the people who are responsible for crimes against humanity,” said Satouri. “The policy of outsourcing border management, this is what the result is, and what it brings. With this agreement, the EU has decided to abandon its values.”
