Central Mediterranean, June-October 2026
Fortress Europe: expanding the machinery of exclusion
The EU is tightening its grip through new laws and increasingly powerful agencies. The EU Return Regulation, agreed in June and entering into force in October 2026, strengthens detention and deportation and opens the way for so-called “return hubs” outside EU territory. The Migration Pact and Common European Asylum System add layers of screening, biometric surveillance and accelerated border procedures, making confinement and removal central features of European migration policy.
On 27 October, the Commission proposed a major expansion of Frontex’s mandate, including a larger standing corps, rapid-response capacity and a stronger role in deportations, including operations from one non-EU country to another. This is the expansion of an agency repeatedly implicated in abuses and pushbacks, as documented by different civil society actors.
At sean Libya and Tunisia: Europe’s violence by proxy
Europe’s borders are enforced far beyond its territory. In western Libya, the “No to Resettlement” campaign has fuelled evictions, rental bans, blockades and attacks on humanitarian facilities, leaving racialised communities displaced and access to humanitarian services disrupted. Meanwhile, EU cooperation with Libyan authorities continues to support a system of interception, forced return and detention.
The three-year review of the EU-Tunisia deal in July renewed criticism of European funding that enables violent interceptions, expulsions and detention. Across North Africa, people fleeing war and persecution, including Sudanese people escaping the devastating conflict, face further violence, confinement and forced return. Europe exports its border violence and calls it “cooperation”.
Sea-Watch’s 2026 factsheet documents recurring failures in rescue coordination, violent interceptions and Frontex involvement in operations resulting in returns to Libya and Tunisia. The agency’s aerial surveillance and cooperation with third-country authorities play a crucial role in a system that tracks boats in distress while facilitating their interception and return to places where people face detention, torture and further violence.
Deaths, disappearances and failures to rescue continued across the Central Mediterranean throughout the summer. Bodies continued to be recovered at sea and along the Libyan and the Tunisian coast, while reports of delayed responses and inadequate rescue efforts exposed once again the systematic abandonment of people on the move.
Criminalisation of solidarity
European governments and political actors are increasingly targeting solidarity with people on the move. In July, a coordinated right-wing smear campaign against Sea-Watch erupted following the publication of selectively edited Frontex footage of a rescue operation carried out by the Sea-Watch 5 on 11 May. Right-wing and conservative media in Germany, France and Italy used the images to revive allegations of collusion between rescue organisations and “smugglers”. Politicians, including German CDU representatives, amplified these accusations, while the footage was presented as evidence without the full context of the rescue: 90 people were in distress, two were unconscious, and several were reportedly trapped below deck. Sea-Watch firmly rejected the allegations, denouncing a far-right defamation campaign.
The campaign is part of a broader political strategy: discredit civilian rescue, manufacture suspicion around solidarity and make the criminalisation of humanitarian action appear legitimate. As independent reporting by taz and Matthias Monroy has shown, the leaked footage was used to fuel accusations across borders, echoing earlier attempts to criminalise the Iuventa crew. Meanwhile, the central facts remain obscured: the Sea-Watch 5 had reported the rescue to the authorities and was subsequently shot at by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard.
Fighting back!
Legal resistance is producing important victories. Italian courts ruled against the detention of Humanity 1 and Sea-Watch 5, reaffirming that Libya is not a place of safety and challenging sanctions imposed on rescue vessels. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights has also documented these rulings and the continuing conflict between restrictions on rescue and the obligation to protect people at sea. Yet criminalisation continues: the Mare Jonio/Maersk Etienne case in Ragusa still exposes six activists, sailors and medical workers to the threat of lengthy prison sentences.
The struggle for accountability in Libya is also advancing. The ICC trial of El Hishri is scheduled to open on 4 May 2027, following the confirmation of 17 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes linked to Mitiga detention prison.
Meanwhile, movements are organising across borders: the Migration Village at the World Social Forum in Cotonou in August brought together groups opposing externalisation and deportations, while around 20,000 people mobilised in Castel Volturno in Italy on 24 October against detention centres.
Workshop in Conotou organized by survivors of human trafficking in Libya
Demonstration in Casterl Volturno
The complicity of European institutions is also being challenged in court. In the FM v Frontex case, presented in Brussels on 1 October by Front-LEX, Refugees in Libya and Sea-Watch, a Sudanese refugee challenges Frontex’s alleged role in enabling interceptions and returns to Libya through aerial surveillance.
Resistance takes many forms: solidarity will win!
