NGO Highlights the Violence of Libya's Militia-Operated Coast Guard

Libya's trans-migration industry has been marked by violence for years, and stories of militia-led abuses against foreigners are commonplace. The Libyan Coast Guard is an umbrella group for the same militias, and its primary mission is in retrieving maritime migrants who have paid smugglers for passage to Europe. The business model is subsidized: the European Union underwrites the operating costs of the coast guard, and the migrants are typically imprisoned and extorted for funds once returned to Libya. In a new report, the NGO Sea-Watch details the frequent violence of a process that has slowed the pace of maritime migration to Europe.

The NGO estimates that since 2016, nearly 170,000 people have been caught at sea by the Libyan Coast Guard and brought back to Libyan shores for further imprisonment, where they re-enter what the UN Fact Finding Mission on Libya calls an "abhorrent cycle of violence." The real number of detainees is likely much higher, Sea Watch believes, but it is difficult to obtain testimony from those who have experienced an interdiction.

The capture process is ostensibly a rescue but is frequently violent, including beatings and shootings. Occasionally, Libyan Coast Guard members open fire on migrant rescue NGO vessels using EU-donated weapons platforms, with no consequences for the militias' EU funding stream. Gunfire incidents occurred on August 24 and again on September 26; during the August incident, Libyan Coast Guard militia members fired on an NGO vessel for 20 minutes continuously, penetrating the superstructure, breaking bridge windows, and damaging antennas and RIB boats.

According to Sea Watch, the frequency of known violent incidents is increasing. There were only three in 2016, but there were 11 last year and nine so far in 2025. The NGO believes that these run-ins are underreported, and likely much more frequent for intercepts that happen out of sight.

The report was released in advance of a welcome ceremony for Libyan representatives at the headquarters of Frontex, the EU border-control agency, and at the EU Commission building in Brussels. Both partner with the Libyan Coast Guard on migrant interdiction, and neither have expressed concern about the militias' creative and violent business practices.

"Every new agreement with Libyan regimes, every extension of mandates, legitimizes this violence. It is absolutely outrageous that Frontex and the Commission are now rolling out the red carpet on EU soil for militia men shooting bullets at migrants and our rescue ships," said Bérénice Gaudin, Sea-Watch Advocacy Officer.

The EU has its own challenges, however, and these extend beyond the human rights of individual migrants. Eastern Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar is drawing closer to Russia, raising the prospect of a Russian-sponsored policy of unrestricted migration from Libya to Europe. This would help Russia to foment internal discontent in the EU and create a distraction for its leaders at a time when European unity and resolve are essential.

"There is certainly a danger that Russia [will] use migrants and the migration issue as a whole as a weapon against Europe. This weaponization is taking place, and of course we also fear that Russia intends to do the same with Libya," EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner told Politico this summer. "The fact that Russia is increasing its influence in Libya is precisely our concern, and that’s why we must also engage with Libya."