The Hague/Berlin, 19 May 2026. High-ranking Libyan official Khaled Mohamed Ali El-Hishri is accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes: today’s hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against the senior official of the notorious Mitiga prison in Tripoli is the first following 15 years of ICC investigations into Libya. In the camp, refugees and migrants intercepted at sea by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard are arbitrarily detained, tortured and exploited. The search and rescue organisation SOS Humanity criticises the German government for making itself complicit in these serious crimes by providing financial and political support to those responsible via the European Union. 

SOS Humanity highlights the inconsistency in the German government’s actions: in early May 2026, the Federal Ministry of the Interior extended the heightened security level 2 to the Libyan search and rescue zone for ships flying the German flag for the first time. According to a statement by the ministry, this was due to the danger posed by Libyan actors. However, the German government refuses to clearly state that Libya is not a place of safety for protection seekers who have been rescued at sea (see response to the parliamentary inquiry from the party Alliance 90/The Greens dated 11 March 2026). Instead, the cabinet under chancellor Friedrich Merz amended the mandate for the German federal army’s participation in the EU’s IRINI mission last year no longer explicitly ruling out the training of the Libyan Coast Guard. 

“The German government is exposing the glaring contradictions in its policy: on the one hand, it supports criminal actors and thus systematic human rights violations; on the other, it acknowledges the dangerous nature and crimes of those very same actors, whose prosecution it is aiding by handing over El Hishri,” explains Marie Michel, policy expert at SOS Humanity. “The German federal army must not train the so-called Libyan Coast Guard, which forces people seeking protection into detention camps. For Germany is making itself complicit in the crimes now being addressed before the International Criminal Court.” 

In the experience of search and rescue organisations, the aggression displayed by Libyan actors in Libya and in the Mediterranean is no longer directed solely at people on the move. On several occasions, NGO rescue vessels have also been fired upon with live ammunition by patrol boats belonging to the EU-funded Libyan Coast Guard, most recently the Sea-Watch 5 on 11 May 2026. The crew and 90 people rescued were threatened with being abducted to Libya.  

“Many of us were intercepted at sea, returned to Libya, detained without charge, tortured, enslaved, raped or forcibly recruited by militias operating within a system long known to the international community,” says David Yambio, Executive Director of the organisation Refugees in Libya. “The fact that El Hishri must now answer for his crimes before the International Criminal Court is an important step towards accountability. At the same time, we must stress that responsibility isn’t limited to individual perpetrators while ignoring that the EU’s support for the Libyan authorities enables these crimes to this day.” 

SOS Humanity is launching a petition to draw attention to these contradictions and to protest against the German government’s extension of the IRINI mandate of the German federal army.