The s.c. Libyan Coast Guard
LCG - a collection of militias and semi-state entities linked to the Government of National Unity (GNU) – the enforcers and beneficiaries of a detention-industrial complex responsible for a decade of human rights violations and illegal returns to Libya.
Those who have experienced their operations firsthand do not use the neutral language of institutional description. Refugees in Libya, the self-organised movement founded by survivors of the Libyan detention system, call it plainly: "Through the back door, the EU is funding and equipping militias and coast guards" — in full knowledge that everyone intercepted is automatically placed in indefinite arbitrary detention without judicial review.
Between January 2018 and September 2025, at least 145,437 people were intercepted — often in international waters — and forcibly returned to Libyan detention centres, where they face torture, enslavement, sexualised violence and arbitrary detention. These figures are IOM data; the actual toll is almost certainly higher.
EU Funding and Complicity
Although the LCG existed before 2017, it was the creation of the Libyan Search and Rescue Zone by the International Maritime Organisation, combined with the Italy-Libya deal, that triggered a massive increase in EU investment. Support has included at least:
Vessel transfers: 20 to 40 boats between 2017 and September 2025
Financial support: Over €465 million allocated through the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa
Training and coordination: Through EU agencies including Frontex and EUBAM
Beyond direct support, Frontex has regularly shared the coordinates of boats carrying people on the move — obtained through drone surveillance — with the LCG, resulting in interceptions and forced returns. The EU, in other words, did not merely fund the LCG: it actively directed its operations.
Violence at Sea
The violence of the LCG is well-documented. It is above all the testimonies of survivors and those working on the ground that give this documentation its weight and verifiable reality. Sea-Watch's report "Episodes of violence by the so-called Libyan coastguard and other Libyan militias at sea: 2016–September 2025" records shootings, deaths of migrants during interceptions, hijackings of rescue ships, dangerous manoeuvres, hindered rescues, beatings of people in distress, and the abandonment of dead bodies at sea. At least 54 of the documented incidents occurred in international waters. The number of unreported cases is estimated to be substantially higher.
The violence is directed primarily against people on the move themselves. But there are also numerous violent confrontations between the militias and civil rescue forces. These confrontations have escalated steadily over nearly a decade. What the Iuventa crew witnessed in September 2016 — intimidation manoeuvres and the threat of armed boarding — was the beginning. Years of impunity led to a systematic escalation: from harassment and dangerous manoeuvres to the use of live ammunition against rescue vessels.
In August 2025, a boat transferred by Italy to the LCG under the EU-funded SIBMMIL programme attacked the rescue ship Ocean Viking in international waters, firing a significant number of rounds and endangering the lives of over thirty crew members and eighty-seven survivors on board.
On 11 May 2026, armed vessels linked to the Libyan coast guard attacked the Sea-Watch 5. A single shot was fired, followed by a burst of 10 to 15 rounds, shortly after the crew had rescued around 90 people from an overcrowded wooden boat, approximately 27 miles from the Libyan coast. Italy responded by opening a criminal investigation but targeting not the perpetrators, but the captain of the Sea-Watch 5.
Sources & Further Reading
Refugees in Libya: testimony and documentation from survivors
https://www.refugeesinlibya.org
IOM data: "The Libyan coast guard – explained"
https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/67224/the-libyan-coast-guard--explained
Sea-Watch: "Episodes of violence by the so-called Libyan coastguard and other Libyan militias at sea: 2016–September 2025"
https://sea-watch.org/en/60-libyan-attacks-at-sea
Statewatch, 2025: "EU-funded aggression: how years of impunity led to the attack on the Ocean Viking"
https://statewatch.org/analyses/2025/eu-funded-aggression
ECCHR: "Interceptions of migrants and refugees at sea"
https://www.ecchr.eu/en/case/interceptions-of-migrants-and-refugees-at-sea/
UN OHCHR: "Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya"
https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/libya
FragDenStaat: Operation IRINI mission documents, February 2026
https://fragdenstaat.de/dokumente/274948-sachstand-mission-irini-24022026/
nd-aktuell, 2026: EU doubles pullback system in Libya: Renegade Benghazi to receive control centre and coastguard equipment
https://digit.site36.net/2026/01/06/eu-doubles-pullback-system-in-libya-renegade-benghazi-also-to-receive-control-centre-and-coastguard-equipment/