Civil society organizations call on EU to halt abusive migration collaboration with Libya News
© European Union, 2026, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Civil society organizations call on EU to halt abusive migration collaboration with Libya

A group of 31 international human rights organizations on Friday called on the EU and its member states to end their cooperation with Libyan authorities on migration control. The groups expressed alarm at plans to strengthen cooperation with the rival authorities in Eastern and Western Libya, which both have a longstanding record of grave rights abuses against refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.

In their joint statement, the civil society organizations highlighted that they have consistently expressed deep concern over collaboration between EU member states and Libyan authorities. Assistance from the EU has facilitated the interception and forced return of tens of thousands of refugees and migrants annually to Libya, where they have faced rights abuses including indefinite arbitrary detention in cruel and inhuman conditions, unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, sexual violence, extortion and forced labor.

The rights groups released their statement in the context of heightened cooperation between the EU and Libyan authorities. The NGO Statewatch recently leaked documents dated May 20 that detail how the EU has been collaborating with Libya’s Eastern Forces. The collaboration includes training, technical support and the development of a regional migration coordination center based in Benghazi. The EU has confirmed plans to establish a “Maritime Rescue Coordination Center” in Benghazi and a surveillance tower with radar in Tobruk, both cities in Eastern Libya controlled by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces. The plan appears to be modelled on a similar 2017 initiative struck with the Western-based government.

Since the NATO intervention in Libya in 2011 and the death of the longtime leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has become a hotspot for human trafficking. The grim situation is illustrated the discovery of nearly 50 bodies in two mass graves in February 2025, and the discovery of a mass grave containing 21 bodies in January 2026. Libya has especially served as a starting point for flights trafficking migrants to Nicaragua, with an intended final destination of the United States. The UN has appealed to the EU on the need for life-saving search and rescue operations at sea, and the suspension of interceptions and returns to Libya, among other remedial directives.

Signatories to the joint statement include Amnesty International, EuroMed Rights, Human Rights Watch, Refugees in Libya and Sea-Watch, among others.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Congress passed legislation establishing post-WWII national security structure

On July 25, 1947, the National Security Act of 1947 was passed, establishing a linkage between the military and national security, and setting up the National Security Council (NSC), the CIA, the Department of Defense, and several other new agencies, including the National Military Establishment with three separate departments (the Army, the Navy and the new US Air Force), and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Learn more about the National Security Act of 1947.

Brunswick Manifesto proclaimed

On July 25, 1792, the Brunswick Manifesto was proclaimed by Charles William Ferdinand, the Duke of Brunswick during the French Revolutionary Wars. As leader of the forces allied against France, Ferdinand promised retribution against the citizens of Paris if the French Royal Family was harmed. Instead, the Manifesto further inflamed anti-royal sentiment in Paris.