Haftar's Libya as an EU Proxy

Raids before departure.
Interceptions far out at sea.
Forced returns to an unsafe country.
Detention and deportation.
Bodies washing ashore.
People disappearing without even being counted.

European institutions continue to provide surveillance, equipment, training and political legitimacy to this system and then distance themselves from its consequences.
It is Europe’s colonial border regime extending deep into the Mediterranean to prevent racialised people from reaching safety. The interception machine never stops because Europe continues to finance and legitimise it.

While Libyan militias proudly publish images of arrests, intercepted boats and seized vessels people returned to violence, the unidentified bodies and the missing remain largely invisible.

On a Linkedin post of Monday, July 20, our friend Birimi Jihed has reported on “A Day in Libya”:

Before most of Europe had finished breakfast, Libya interception machine had already carried out at least four operations off the eastern coast:

🚨At 04:00,Alsaiqa Special Forces intercepted a boat carrying 27 people from Sudan and Egypt off Tobruk.
🚨Around 08:00, forces affiliated with Libya eastern command intercepted 33 Sudanese people approximately 25 nautical miles off Al-Tamimi and forcibly took them to the Tobruk disembarkation point.
🚨Another Alsaiqa unit intercepted 33 people including children, only six nautical miles off Kambut.They were taken to the Tobruk maritime base.
🚨At 08:30, Libyan naval special forces intercepted another boat carrying 30 people,12 nautical miles northwest of Tobruk.
At least 123 people intercepted in only a few hours.

Later that same day, more interceptions happened, as Birimi Jihed has docuumented in a separate post, which inculdes events until July 22:

On Monday 20th,

Libyan forces intercepted another 58 Sudanese people approximately 120 nautical miles north of Tobruk.

At 21:30, AlSaiqa Special Forces intercepted a boat carrying 65 people around seven nautical miles off Kambut. They were taken to Tobruk Naval Base and now face detention and deportation.

On Tuesday 21th,

Forces affiliated with the General Command raided a house in Maliha, west of Albardi (Tobruk), arresting 127 Egyptian, Sudanese, Ethiopian and Somali people. They now face detention and deportation.

On the morning of Wednesday 22th,

Aljabal Al Akhdar Naval Special Forces announced the interception of a boat carrying at least 50 people off eastern Libya.
That same morning, General Administration for Coastal Security in Sirte raided a warehouse in the Alsidra area, arresting 63 Egyptian and Bangladeshi people. Several boats were also seized.
Meanwhile, Libyan Red Crescent reported a deadly shipwreck off Alajaylat. 34s urvivors received emergency assistance, one person was transferred to hospital in serious condition, and the number of people dead or missing remains unknown.
In Sabratha, Libyan Red Crescent recovered three bodies believed to be migrants from the western beach. Their identities—and the shipwreck from which they may have come remain unknown.

All of this happened in less than 2 days.

It is worth noting that interceptions, round-ups of migrants and refugees, and deportations with unknown destinations are increasingly happening in the East of Libya, in recent months, and especially since June this year.

As Atar (22.06.26) wrote,

Despite Libya’s enduring political divisions, authorities in both eastern and western Libya have adopted remarkably similar positions. Under the banner of opposing migrant resettlement, the rival administrations in Tripoli and Benghazi launched parallel security campaigns involving large-scale raids and arrests across the country.

As we have recently posted, East Libya’s Field Marshal Haftar declared in June, that "Migrants must be expelled from the country by all means." While this declaration was a reaction to Libyan racist protests, it is grounded in EU externalization politics, which have been analysed by Statewatch:

EU has begun collaborating with Libya’s eastern forces on migration control. This collaboration includes training, support and the development of a regional migration coordination centre based in Benghazi. The ‘technical arrangement’ shows clearly that, rather than listening to civil societies’ calls to end or suspend a deadly externalisation partnership, the EU is only interested in expanding it further.

Let us be clear about this: Haftar’s Liaison with Russia is near over, as Putin’s star is sinking. So Haftar calls on EU, as he sacrifices the Subsaharan population of Libya. UAE remains a stark ally, as the Emirs not only finance and weaponise Haftar’s army, but also keep supporting the Sudanese RSF.

A recent joint investigation by Lighthouse Reports and others has shed light on the UAE-Haftar-RSF network. As Sudan War Monitor wrote,

Equipment enters Libya by sea and air, through Benghazi's port and on cargo flights landing at several bases across the country's interior, before moving south toward staging areas near the Sudanese border.
The network operates within territory controlled by the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, which controls eastern and southern Libya. Sources said that RSF personnel were brought to Libya overland and by air, where they underwent training at Camp 17, an LNA facility, on drones and heavy weapons systems.

Also, there are rumors that deportees from East Libya are forced into subscription by RSF.

Still of a video posted on Jungo Libya.
Plase find the video here

The footage above stems from a Facebook group called Jungo Libya. This is where most info on round-ups and deportations are being traded at the moment, and this is where the most valid information, from the side of the people affected, stems from. We must follow their voices.

Migration-Control.Info has established a working group on Haftar’s Libya, and more info is to come soon.

For cooperation, please write to contact[at]migration-control.info