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A new report by the civil sea rescue organisation Sea-Watch documents 107 violent incidents by Libyan militias against migrants and refugees, as well as European actors in the Mediterranean since 2016. More than 70 per cent of these incidents of extreme violence, 80 in total, were carried out by the so-called Libyan coastguard. The report is being published shortly before the renewal of Germany’s EUNAVFOR MED IRINI mandate. The current version of the mandate contains no clause excluding the training of the so-called Libyan Coast Guard by the German armed forces (Bundeswehr).

A Frontex aircraft ignored repeated radio calls from the civilian rescue ship Solidaire, then promptly gave a Libyan militia the coordinates of a boat in distress, facilitating the illegal pullback of the people on board. Sea-Watch’s monitoring aircraft Seabird 2 documented the radio exchange in international waters off Libya, as well as the interception that followed. Frontex radio communications also indicate that Frontex staff share their aircraft positions via Telegram. The incident comes just one day after the European Commission proposed the largest expansion of Frontex to date.
 

The crews of the Sea-Watch vessels Sea-Watch 5 and Aurora 2 rescued 227 people from five boats in distress in international waters in the central Mediterranean within 48 hours. During the rescues, both crews encountered unidentified vessels approaching their rescue ships. Italian authorities have assigned Sea-Watch 5 the distant port of Civitavecchia, approximately three days’ sailing away...

In the early hours of 29 September 2026, the crew of the Sea-Watch rescue vessel Aurora rescued 28 people following a shipwreck in international waters. The crew also recovered the bodies of two people, including a child. Five survivors were found aboard an almost completely deflated rubber boat, while another 23 had managed to reach the Hasdrubal gas platform in international waters...