November 2025
The Brutalization of the Border Regime
Over the past ten weeks, the Central Mediterranean has once again revealed itself as a deeply contested space, a theatre of repression, violence, and impunity at Europe’s maritime frontier. The EU’s ongoing cooperation with Libyan militias has intensified, transforming the sea into a zone of militarized control and human rights abuse. In late August and again in late September, civil rescue ships such as the Ocean Viking and Sea-Watch 5 came under direct fire from Libyan militias, acts of aggression that starkly expose the deadly consequences of European outsourcing of border enforcement. These attacks, far from isolated incidents, are part of a long continuum of violence sustained by EU funding, training, and political support for Libyan armed groups to purportedly stem “migration flows.”
The pattern of brutality has become systematic. A recent Sea-Watch report (14 October 2025) documented sixty violent incidents by the so-called Libyan coast-guards since 2016, targeting both people on the move and humanitarian actors at sea. The European Court of Human Rights is now pressing Italy to answer for its failure to surrender a suspected Libyan torturer to the International Criminal Court, while 122 European officials have been named in legal actions for alleged crimes against humanity in connection with the Central Mediterranean route. These cases illustrate the depth of complicity at the institutional level: the EU’s deterrence-based border regime functions through externalization, where violence is delegated to local actors in exchange for migration control.
As the repression escalates, governments have also targeted solidarity itself. Civil rescue operations face criminalization, administrative blockades, and smear campaigns. Trials against rescue organizations, such as Mediterranea, continue in Ragusa, while activists in Tunisia face harassment and prosecution. The recent suspension of the Tunisian organization FTDES underscores how repression extends beyond the sea, aiming to silence voices that document and resist abuses.
The Persistence of Resistance and Solidarity
Yet, alongside this deepening violence, movements of resistance and solidarity continue to grow, both at sea and on land. In the same ten-week period, a wide array of protests, legal interventions, and commemorative actions have unfolded across Europe and North Africa, reclaiming freedom of movement and the right to rescue. Civil sea rescue organizations remain steadfast: despite attacks, the civil fleet continues its operations, providing life-saving assistance where states fail or actively obstruct the duty to rescue.
From early September’s SAR – Solidarity and Resistance Camp near Berlin to the F.Lotta protest at sea, activists and collectives have coordinated cross-border mobilizations demanding an end to the EU-Libya deal and to border violence. Later in the month, simultaneous protests took place in Agadez and Geneva to denounce the role of IOM and UNHCR in the EU externalization policies.
Advocacy has also intensified: over forty human rights organizations and members of the European Parliament have called on the European Commission to halt funding and cooperation with Libyan entities responsible for abuse. Mid-October, action days in Rome brought survivors from Refugees in Libya and supporters to the streets to oppose the renewal of the bloody Memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Italy and Libya.
Picture: F.lotta
Commemorations such as the 12th anniversary of the Lampedusa shipwreck on 3 October serve as powerful reminders of the human cost of border militarization and as spaces of collective mourning and resistance. The month closed with coordinated workshops and protests in Albania against migrant detention, followed by a series of events in Brussels marking ten years of civil sea rescue and launching the Justice Fleet campaign, a call for accountability and a reaffirmation that solidarity is not a crime.
In this landscape of repression, resistance takes many forms: solidarity at sea, legal challenges in courtrooms, public protests, and the daily work of self-organized communities of people on the move. Together, we form an enduring network of defiance and care, a counter-force to the violence of the border regime and a living practice of transnational solidarity.
| 24.08.2025 | Shootings by Libyan militias on Ocean Viking |
| 04-07.09.2025 | A SAR camp is organized near Berlin by actors from the civil fleet |
| 10-18.09.2025 | F.Lotta: occupation of the Central Mediterranean |
| 12-13.09.2025 | Campaign UNFAIR 2.0 organised in Geneva by Refugees in Libya, Publication of the Book of Shame. Simultaneous protest in Agadez |
| 23.09.2025 | Open Letter from 42 human rights organizations to EU Commission to Stop Funding Abuse in Libya |
| 26.09.2025 | Shooting by Libyan militias on the Sea Watch5 |
| 03.10.2025 | 12th anniversary of Lampedusa shipwreck, text written by Father Mussie Zerai and CommorActions |
| 08.10.2025 | The court of Trapani rules in favor of Mediterranea: detention of the ship suspended, Piantedosi decree resoundingly refuted |
| 09.10.2025 | The Italian Chamber of Deputies has denied authorization to proceed in the Almasri case against Ministers Carlo Nordio and Matteo Piantedosi and Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano |
| 13.10.2025 | Libyan militia “TBZ“ made a shooting attack against people on the move |
| 14.10.2025 | Sea-Watch publishes a report compiling 60 violent incidents involving the so-called Libyan coastguard, since 2016 |
| 14.10.2025 | ECCHR press release: Italy to answer to European Court of Human Rights after failure to surrender suspected Libyan torturer to the ICC |
| 14-18.10.2025 | Action days against Italy-Libya Memorandum of understanding, stage of survivors in the city center of Rome |
| 16.10.2025 | Front-lex press release “122 European officials suspected of Crimes Against Humanity against ‘migrants’ in the Central Mediterranean route” |
| 21.10.2025 | Start of the Trial against Mediterranea in Ragusa |
| 21.10.2025 | Publication of an open letter written 40 MEPs to EU-Commission to halt EU support to Libyan entities |
| 27.10.2025 | Suspension of the activities of the civil society organisation “FTDES”, supporting people on the move in Tunisia |
| 31.10-02.11.25 | Protest days and workshops from network against migrant detentions in Shengjin, Gäder and Tirana |
| 04.11.2025 | 10 years Sea Rescue event at the European Parliament and Stage of Survivors in Brussels |
| 05.11.2025 | Press conference and launch of the Justice Fleet campaign in Brussels |
Echoes Editorial Team
