Europe’s Complicity in Libya: Lawmakers Demand an End to EU Support for Human Rights Abusers.

Strasbourg, 21 October 2025

Addressed to:

Ms Dubravka Šuica, European Commissioner for the Mediterranean

Mr Magnus Brunner, European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs

Subject: Urgent need to halt EU support to Libyan entities involved in migration

management and gross human rights violations

Dear Commissioner Šuica,

Dear Commissioner Brunner,

As Members of the European Parliament, we are writing urgently regarding the European

Commission's continued support for Libyan forces, following the unprecedented attacks on

European humanitarian workers and survivors of shipwreck in August and September carried

out by the Libyan Coast Guard in a boat provided through an EU-funded programme.

Despite a long record of violence against humanitarians and people in distress at sea both

before and after the latest shootings, and the Libyan Coast Guard and other militias’ role in

the forcible transfer of people seeking safety to places where they face extortion, trafficking,

slavery, violence, and death, the European Union continues to provide support to Libyan

authorities involved in migration management, including the Libyan Coast Guard and the

Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM).

This continued cooperation is a flagrant misuse of EU funds, runs contrary to the European

acquis, and furthermore endangers the fragile Libyan peace process, increases instability at

the EU’s maritime border, and undermines the EU’s credibility as a foreign policy actor.

Since 2017, the Commission has been providing material, technical and training support to

Libyan authorities under the EU Trust Fund for Africa (EUTFA) and the Neighbourhood,

Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI). Specifically, the Commission has financed the following projects: Support to integrated border and migration management in Libya (SIBMMIL) Phases 1 and 2, Support to Border Management Institutions in Libya and Tunisia and Support to Cross-Border Cooperation and Integrated Border Management in North Africa. All these projects have as beneficiaries the Libyan Coast and Border Guards and the DCIM, among others.

TEU Article 21 establishes that EU external action shall be guided by the principles of

democracy, human rights and rule of law. NDICI Regulation Article 29 excludes from funding

any activities that may result in human rights violations. Despite the mounting evidence, the

Commission has so far failed to provide evidence that border management projects in Libya

comply with the do-no-harm principle. Even after a formal request by the European

Ombudsman it refused to release the findings of its monitoring in a lack of transparency that

constitutes maladministration.

The Parliament’s position on this issue is that the Commission and Member States shall not

indirectly facilitate illegal pullbacks by the Libyan border or security apparatus and the

returning of people to inhumane camps in Libya, and not to fund and cooperate with Libyan

stakeholders against which there are credible allegations of grave violations and involvement

in human trafficking (2021/2064(INI)).

In 2023, the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission to Libya found that the DCIM and the

Libyan Coast Guard were involved in gross human rights violations including human trafficking, forced labour, starvation, sexual violence and torture to such a scale that may amount to crimes against humanity. The Mission also called for an immediate halt to all direct and indirect support to those actors. In 2024 the European Court of Auditors denounced how EUTFA projects in Libya failed to address human rights risks and lacked procedures to report allegations of human rights abuses.

According to Italian judicial authorities, the interceptions at sea conducted by the Libyan Coast Guard cannot legally qualify as rescue operations. Furthermore, the Libyan Coast Guard itself is deeply involved in human trafficking and smuggling, a fact acknowledged by the Commission in 2023, when admitted that it had been infiltrated by organized crime. The

Libyan Coast Guard has repeatedly threatened and attacked civil society search-and-rescue

vessels and violently intercepted boats carrying people fleeing Libya, often in international

waters, forcibly returning them back to Libya. There, they are delivered to DCIM, where they

face arbitrary detention, torture, rape, enslavement and other inhumane acts.

Eight years of EU-funded training and equipment have not improved the human rights

record of these actors, they have just emboldened them to commit further abuses. The recent shootings at civilian rescue vessels from EU-funded patrol boats, endangering the lives of EU citizens and shipwreck survivors, is the latest manifestation of this ongoing pattern of violence.

On August 25th, an EU-Funded Corrubia-Class boat from the Libyan Coast Guard opened fire with assault rifles against the SAR boat Ocean Viking. Again on September 26th, the Sea-Watch 5 search and rescue ship was also shot by Libyan Coast Guard from another EU-funded patrolboat. If these attacks continue, it is a matter of time that a shot fired by an EU-trained Coast Guard, driving an EU-funded patrol boat, kills an EU citizen for the sole crime of rescuing lives at sea.

In light of these grave developments, we call on the European Commission to:

1. Publicly condemn the violent actions of the Libyan Coast Guard against Search and

   Rescue actors in the Central Mediterranean.

2. Immediately halt all forms of support — financial, technical, or operational — to the

   Libyan Coast Guard, the DCIM and any other Libyan entity implicated in severe human

   rights violations, in line with Article 29 of the NDICI Regulation.

3. Redirect that support to civil society organizations and UN entities actually supporting

   and protecting migrants in Libya.

4. Promote the establishment of a state-led, EU-coordinated search-and-rescue

   mission in the Central Mediterranean, ensuring compliance with international

   maritime and human rights law.

5. Urge the Italian Government to suspend the renewal of its 2017 Memorandum of

   Understanding with Libya, and call on other Member States to refrain from concluding

   similar agreements.

6. Refrain from engaging with non-recognized entities on migration management such

   as forces in Eastern Libya under the control of warlord Khalifa Haftar.

We agree with the Commission that the EU should remain engaged in Libya, and in fact deepen that engagement. This should be based around supporting the peace process, strengthening human rights standards, and assisting the Libyan people to overcome the consequences of

years of conflict, a fragile economy, and degraded ecosystems. Peace and security in the region cannot be achieved through a transactional foreign policy focused only on migration control.

Upholding the EU’s legal and moral obligations requires ending all complicity in Libyan security forces' abuses and prioritizing the protection of human life and dignity at sea and on land.

We remain at your disposal to discuss these issues further and urge you to take swift and

concrete action.

Yours sincerely,

1. Matjaž NEMEC, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

2. Mounir SATOURI, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

3. Marta TEMIDO, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

4. Tineke STRIK, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

5. Rudi KENNES, Member of the European Parliament, Left

6. Marco TARQUINIO, Member of the European Parliament, S&DJaume ASENS LLODRA, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

7. Lena SCHILLING, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

8. Rima HASSAN, Member of the European Parliament, Left

9. Jan-Christoph OETJEN, Member of the European Parliament, Renew

10. Özlem DEMIREL, Member of the European Parliament, Left

11. Leoluca ORLANDO, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

12. Benedetta SCUDERI, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

13. Erik MARQUARDT, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

14. Majdouline SBAÏ, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

15. Melissa CAMARA, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

16. Saskia BRICMONT, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

17. Merja KYLLÖNEN, Member of the European Parliament, Left

18. Martin GÜNTHER, Member of the European Parliament, Left

19. Sebastian EVERDING, Member of the European Parliament, Left

20. Cecilia Maria STRADA, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

21. Estrela GALÁN, Member of the European Parliament, Left

22. Sandro RUOTOLO, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

23. Birgit SIPPEL, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

24. Lucia ANNUNZIATA, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

25. Pernando BARRENA ARZA, Member of the European Parliament, Left

26. Per CLAUSEN, Member of the European Parliament, Left

27. Alessandra MORETTI, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

28. Damien CARÊME, Member of the European Parliament, Left

29. Catarina MARTINS, Member of the European Parliament, Left

30. Alessandro ZAN, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

31. Arash SAEIDI, Member of the European Parliament, Left

32. Lynn BOYLAN, Member of the European Parliament, Left

33. Annalisa CORRADO, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

34. Krzysztof ŚMISZEK, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

35. Murielle LAURENT, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

36. Sandra GOMEZ, Member of the European Parliament, S&D

37. Brando BENIFEI, Member of the European Parliament, S&