Libya: the human cost of Europe’s externalised border policy

The latest tragedy in the Central Mediterranean unfolded on 12 June, when a boat carrying migrants from Libya towards Europe capsized off the country’s eastern coast. According to the Associated Press, on 19 June, citing the Libyan monitoring group Al-Abreen, 51 people are dead or missing. Only ten survived, while eleven bodies have been recovered and forty people remain unaccounted for. The shipwreck is the latest reminder that Libya remains the principal departure point for one of the world’s deadliest migration routes.

Yet the disaster is far from an isolated incident. According to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 700 migrants had already died or gone missing on the Central Mediterranean route between January and April 2026, while more than 1,300 people lost their lives on the same route in 2025. The United Nations, quoted by Al Jazeera, has warned that the death toll is rapidly approaching 1,000 deaths in 2026, making this one of the deadliest years since migration monitoring began.

For many migrants, however, the danger begins long before they attempt the sea crossing. Those intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard and returned to Libya are routinely detained in facilities where UN investigators have documented forced labour, torture, rape, beatings and arbitrary detention, abuses that UN fact-finding missions have said may amount to crimes against humanity .

Against this backdrop, the European Union is deepening its cooperation with Libya as the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum enters its implementation phase. Brussels increasingly considers Libya a strategic partner in its external migration policy, expanding cooperation not only with the internationally recognised authorities in Tripoli but also with the eastern administration led by Khalifa Haftar. The objective is to prevent departures before migrants reach European waters, reinforcing Libya’s role as Europe’s first line of border control.

This strategy has drawn growing criticism from humanitarian organisations. The expanding of EU-Libya migration cooperation risks increasing human rights abuses, as European financial and technical support continues despite extensive documentation of abuse inside Libyan detention centres. Libya is the cornerstone of Europe’s migration policy, arguing that migration management has become increasingly outsourced to a country where systemic violations against migrants remain widespread.

The financial dimension of this partnership is substantial. Since 2015, the European Union has provided roughly €700 million to Libya for border management, surveillance and support to the Libyan Coast Guard, according to the European Commission . Human rights groups argue that this funding has strengthened interception capacity without creating adequate safeguards for those who are returned to Libya, where they remain exposed to arbitrary detention, extortion and violence.

Meanwhile, the domestic climate inside Libya has become increasingly hostile toward migrants. In early June anti-migrant demonstrations and online disinformation campaigns intensified following discussions surrounding the EU migration pact. False claims alleging that Europe intended to permanently resettle migrants inside Libya spread rapidly on social media. On 8 June, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) publicly rejected those allegations.

The contradiction at the heart of European migration policy is therefore becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. As shipwrecks continue to claim hundreds of lives each year, critics argue that Europe’s migration strategy has increasingly shifted responsibility beyond its borders without adequately addressing the human rights consequences of that approach.

IOM, UN, European Commission, Al Jazeera, AP, Maghrebi.org