EU Plans Expanded Migration Cooperation with Rival Libyan Authorities as Amnesty Condemns Move

Amnesty International on Tuesday condemned the European Union's plan to expand migration cooperation with Libyan authorities. Le Monde reported that the rights group said the EU move occurs as both the Tripoli-based government and the rival eastern administration escalate racially discriminatory arrests, arbitrary detentions, and collective expulsions of migrants and refugees.

Libya remains a primary departure point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.

Le Monde reported that both Libyan administrations have promoted anti-migrant sentiment through xenophobic statements. The EU already provides financial support to the Libyan coast guard, which intercepts migrant vessels at sea, and now seeks to establish a Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in eastern Benghazi.

Libya has been divided between the Tripoli government and an eastern administration backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar since the 2011 death of Muammar Gaddafi.

Le Monde reported that this division has enabled human trafficking and abuses against migrants. Earlier in June, hundreds of people protested outside the UN refugee agency headquarters in Tripoli against irregular migrants. Amnesty International deputy regional director Diana Eltahawy stated that the EU is already complicit in violations due to its coast guard support.

She called on the EU and member states to suspend containment policies that trap people in cycles of abuse. The International Organization for Migration estimated around 900,000 migrants and refugees lived in Libya as of mid-2024. Chadian migrants boarded buses for deportation outside the Ministry of Interior’s Deportation Office in Tripoli on May 12, 2025.