An EU-funded project is providing the Libyan coast guard with new capacities. After eight years and expenditure of almost €60 million, these should now be ready for use – at least in part.

After years of delays, Libyan authorities have apparently installed an official EU-funded Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC). According to information from netzpolitik.org, a container-based maritime control centre was put into operation in the west of the country in October 2024. This also includes a tower with various technology, including for locating larger ships and communication.

The Commission in Brussels confirmed this finding in a recent reply to MEP Özlem Demirel: in view of the ‘completed communication tower’, the MRCC is now ‘partially operational with equipment installed. The launch could also have favoured a new operational behaviour of the coast guard, as observed by civilian sea rescuers: Libyan patrol boats are increasingly picking up people in boats on their way to Europe at night.

Loophole in international law

European authorities, including Frontex, are not allowed to return refugees intercepted at sea to a torture state such as Libya in accordance with the ban on refoulement. As a loophole in international law, the EU Commission has therefore financed the establishment of a Libyan coast guard and equipped it to carry out search and rescue missions.

However, refugees are not safe in Libya, as reports from numerous human rights organisations show. The ‘Refugees in Libya’ network is currently documenting outright manhunts by uniformed forces for black people, hundreds of whom are then taken away in a degrading procedure.

Also with EU support, Libya declared its responsibility for sea rescue in a defined zone in 2018 and registered this with the International Maritime Organisation. However, Libya did not fulfil the associated obligation to set up a control centre with permanent availability. Sea rescue organisations repeatedly pointed out that a supposedly established MRCC did not respond to contact attempts or that the staff did not speak English as required.

New ships, technology and training

This practice has not changed since October – the alleged launch of the mobile MRCC – confirms Britta Rabe from the transnational network Watch the Med Alarm Phone, which provides an emergency call for refugees in distress at sea in the Mediterranean. ‘The so-called Libyan coast guard is still almost unreachable, you can’t communicate with them. I consider the information about the alleged functionality to be a politically motivated lie.’

In the ‘Support for Integrated Border and Migration Management in Libya’ (SIBMMIL) project launched in 2017 to build up the Libyan coast guard, the Commission spent 59 € million from the Africa Fund, as well as money from other EU funds. The aim is to strengthen the maritime surveillance and monitoring capability of the coastal belt. The Italian Ministry of the Interior is responsible for implementation and the corresponding measures will run until at least the end of 2025.

To date, the Libyan Coast Guard, which is part of the military and responsible for international waters, has received three rescue vessels and two larger patrol boats of the so-called Corrubia class as part of SIBMMIL. The maritime police, which is subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior in Tripoli, has been equipped with six additional patrol boats. In addition, the authorities will receive 14 rigid-hull inflatable boats as well as extensive training in technical equipment.

Containers disappeared for a while

The EU project had been repeatedly delayed: initially unsuccessful, Libya was supposed to receive a permanently installed MRCC in Tripoli as part of SIBMMIL. The containers delivered as an alternative at the end of 2021 could not be found for a while, some of the technology had to be replaced and there were political disputes among Libyan authorities about who should operate the facility. ‘A team from the Libyan Coast Guard [is] permanently onsite’, writes the EU Commission.

The mobile MRCC consists of office containers, a kitchen, a refrigerated room and four accommodation containers. Italy donated a further ‘training container’. Several European surveillance companies were involved in the realisation, including the Italian company E-Geos (a subsidiary of Leonardo) and the British company Telespazio. Systems for receiving emergency and warning messages were supplied by Inmarsat from the UK, and radio equipment by Rohde & Schwarz from Germany. According to the Italian newspaper Altreconomia, however, the containers are connected to the Abu Sitta naval base, where radars and other sensors are operated – this technology also comes from Italy.

More than 200 coast guard and maritime police officers are said to have already been trained by the Italian Ministry of the Interior. A further 450 have received training units from the International Organisation for Migration for language and IT courses, first aid training or missions in the desert.

More crossings despite strengthened Libyan coast guard

In 2024, the EU intensified its dialogue with the Libyan authorities on migration issues. This included several technical missions to Tripoli by the Commission and the European External Action Service, which were also intended to monitor progress in the commissioning of the MRCC. In the summer, the then Vice-President of the Commission took part in a ‘migration forum’ in Tripoli, and ministries from Libya came to Brussels for a meeting. They repeated their demand for more patrol boats and logistical support for the coast guard.

According to the EU Commission, the SIBMMIL project has already made ‘notable progress’ thanks to the equipment installed. In 2024 as a whole, the Libyan coast guard intercepted almost 22,000 people, most of them in international waters, some of them illegally in Maltese waters. This is an increase of around a fifth compared to 2023.

However, the total number of crossings on the central Mediterranean route to Europe continues to rise: According to EU figures, over 7,000 people arrived in Italy and Greece this year up to the beginning of March 2025, an increase of 12 per cent compared to the same period last year. According to these statistics, Libya remains the main country of departure with 93 per cent, followed by Tunisia, Algeria and Turkey.

Image: The mobile control centre consists of containers with technology, housing units and antennas as well as a tower with communication technology (Elman).