For several years, the Italian government has been detaining civil rescue vessels for not coordinating with Libyan authorities when they recover people in distress at sea.
On 9 July, the Italian court system again recognised the unlawfulness of such detentions - this time after the SOS Humanity rescued 160 people in distress at sea in December 2025.
SOS Humanity, part of the Justice Fleet alliance, argues that it does not recognise the Libyan coast guard and rescue coordination centre as legitimate actors because they have been found to have committed crimes against migrants.
The evidence supporting this view was documented as recently as February 2026 in the report Business as Usual: Human Rights Violations and Abuses against Migrants, Asylum-Seekers, and Refugees in Libya published by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
This report stated that, across the country, migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees are forcibly rounded up, abducted, separated from their families, arbitrarily arrested and detained, and transferred without due process – often at gunpoint – to official, unofficial, or illegal detention facilities. There, they endure prolonged detention and are coerced through torture and inhumane treatment into paying for their release.
Trafficking networks, often with ties to State actors, further prey on these vulnerabilities for profit through practices such as forced labour, sexual exploitation, ransom and extortion, the sale and transfer of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees between traffickers, and the confiscation and resale of personal belongings and identification documents.
Thousands are also intercepted at sea through dangerous methods and forcibly disembarked and returned to Libya, perpetuating the exploitative cycle of human rights violations and abuses.
Mass graves containing the bodies of migrants have been discovered in the south, east and west of Libya, with indications that more remain undiscovered. Suspected instruments of torture and abuse have also been found at some sites.
The report’s findings are not news. In 2023, the report of the Independent Fact-Finding Mission to Libya found reasonable grounds to believe that since 2016 crimes against humanity have been committed against Libyans and migrants. The Mission documented numerous cases of arbitrary detention, murder, torture, rape, enslavement and enforced disappearance, confirming their widespread practice in Libya.
The Mission found that crimes against humanity were committed against migrants in places of detention under the actual or nominal control of Libya’s Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration, the Libyan Coast Guard, and the Stability Support Apparatus. These entities received technical, logistical and monetary support from the European Union and its member States for, among other things, the interception and return of migrants.
As the pattern of abuse in Libya continues, so does the pattern of harassment of civil rescue efforts. Since the implementation of the Piantedosi Decree-Law on 2 January 2023, over 6,400 people have died or gone missing at sea in the Central Mediterranean while the Italian authorities have issued detention orders against 41 humanitarian rescue vessels.
Another was added to that tally on 9 July when a 45-day detention order was issued against the rescue vessel Trotamar III. The crew of the ship, operated by CompassCollective, had refused to communicate with the Libyan rescue coordination centre.
References:
https://sos-humanity.org/en/press/detention-of-humanity-1-unlawful/
Ends.
Source: Human Rights at Sea 2026. Wendy Laursen.
Photo credit: Anthony Jean / SOS MEDITERRANEE.
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