The Central Mediterranean was the scene of concerning events during the past two weeks. The escalation of violence at sea targets both people on the move and the humanitarian crews trying to render assistance among the erratic behaviour of actors who remain unidentified.
The Ocean Viking has recently conducted a critical rescue involving unidentified, dangerous actors: before dawn of August 13, in the pitch black darkness, a grey fiberglass boat approached our humanitarian ship in International waters at full speed. The crew on lookout from the Bridge saw the unidentified drivers of the asset—who concealed their faces—shine a light on a group of people they had on board, as if to signal their presence, and then proceeded to force them overboard.
Seven people were immediately rescued by SOS MEDITERRANEE’S team on our fast rescue boats and brought on board the mothership, from which they disembarked four days later in Ortona, central Italy, more than 1,500 km away from where this traumatic incident happened.
Our organisation is not the only one facing similar extremely difficult circumstances: the practices we have observed have been recently reported by other SAR organisations. On August 7, Emergency carried out a critical rescue after an unidentified boat approached its Life Support vessel at high speed. The NGO staff asked the boat to stop, but instructions were ignored and the Life Support was dangerously approached on the left side, with the driver of the boat urging the passengers to jump onto the ship. Emergency stated that people began jumping to cling to the vessel, while many others fell into the water. On August 21, Mediterranea Saving Humans was confronted with a comparable situation: 10 people, including minors, were thrown in the water by unidentified people on a boat in the middle of the night. Despite the darkness, they were all recovered by the team of the Italian NGO.
In addition to endangering the lives of people on the move, unidentified, State-, and non-State groups are also threatening crew of SAR NGO vessels in International waters by operating aggressive and dangerous maneuvers, following, circling around rescue ships. Sometimes, they are assets from the Libyan Coast Guards or the Libyan General Administration of Coastal Security (GACS).
Often, they carry guns and shout unlawful orders against the crew, such as during SOS MEDITERRANEE’s last rescue on August 13, or with MEDITERRANEA on August 18.
The operations have become more and more dangerous, especially in the last few weeks, but this is far from being a new occurrence: since the summer of 2024, a proliferation of new actors has been wreaking havoc in the Central Mediterranean, increasing the risk of the crossing for people on the move and posing a threat to the safety of the aid workers involved in humanitarian rescue operations on the world’s deadliest migration route.
The scale and increasing frequency of these incidents, the multiplication of actors, and the incredibly dangerous nature of these events are yet one more step in the transformation of the Central Mediterranean into a void, a place of recklessness and danger intended.
This situation has been crafted by the choices of European states who—instead of fulfilling their legal and moral duty to provide assistance at sea—have chosen to turn a blind eye to the dangers of that treacherous stretch of water and allow erratic and dangerous actors to take a foothold into what should be a humanitarian space.
SOS MEDITERRANEE is extremely concerned by this situation. We urge European member states to respect the accountability and transparency owed to European taxpayers when funding third countries like Libya, and to investigate these unlawful events.
We demand the protection of civilian rescue ships and their crews, who operate lawfully in International waters.
