Mounting criticism of the EU-backed migration deal between Italy and Libya has intensified after migrant rescue groups reported that the Libyan coast guard opened direct fire on their vessels.
In August, SOS Mediterranee said its Ocean Viking ship came under heavy attack, with “hundreds of bullets fired during 20 terrifying minutes” aimed at crew members on the bridge. Last week, German charity Sea-Watch reported that its rescue ship was also targeted with live ammunition.
The incidents highlight growing concerns over the controversial 2017 agreement, under which Italy and the European Union fund and train the Libyan coast guard to intercept migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean. While the pact has sharply reduced arrivals in Italy, critics argue it has made Europe complicit in human rights abuses.
Reports have repeatedly linked EU-funded detention centers in Libya to human traffickers and militias, some of whom allegedly collaborate with the coast guard. Opposition parties in Italy are now demanding the deal be scrapped before it automatically renews in February. Rome would need to give notice by next month, but Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has shown no sign of doing so.
“Libya holds important leverage over Italy in the same way Turkiye did over the EU, by threatening to let migrants leave for Europe,” said Diana Volpe, a migration policy expert at the Free University of Brussels.
Rescue groups say the escalation from warning shots to direct fire is alarming. “It is unacceptable that the Italian government and the EU allow criminal militia to fire on civilians,” said Sea-Watch spokeswoman Giorgia Linardi.
Last month, Mediterranea Saving Humans published photographs it said showed a militia allied with the Libyan government trafficking people in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, 42 civil society organizations have written to the European Commission, demanding an end to EU funding for “organizations that attack European citizens and people in distress at sea.”
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