Brussels, 5 November 2025: After years of escalating human rights violations by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard in the Mediterranean Sea, 13 search and rescue organisations are taking a decisive stand: They are founding a new alliance and are suspending operational communication with the so-called Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Tripoli, Libya. With this step, the rescue organisations are collectively rejecting the growing pressure by the EU and its member state Italy to communicate with the so-called Libyan Coast Guard, which — according to a new report — has committed over 60 acts of brutal violence in the past ten years.

5 November 2025, Brussels: 13 search and rescue organisations announced the formation of the Justice Fleet supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and the organization Refugees in Libya. As a legally grounded response to the coercion by European states to communicate with violent actors at sea, the alliance aims to consistently uphold human rights and international maritime law. Consequently, the Justice Fleet decided to end operational communication with the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Tripoli, Libya (JRCC). In accordance with official rulings, the organisations classify the so-called Libyan Coast Guard as an illegitimate actor at sea. The JRCC Tripoli, which coordinates the violence by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard, cannot be regarded as a competent authority. Libya is not a place of safety for refugees. In addition, the JRCC Tripoli fails to meet international standards: it is not reachable 24/7, lacks linguistic capacity, and has no adequate technical infrastructure for coordinating rescue operations.
For years, search and rescue organisations have documented systematic violence by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard — a decentralised network of armed militias equipped and trained with EU funds, particularly from Italy. Refugees are violently intercepted at sea, abducted, and taken to camps where torture, rape, and forced labour are a systematic practice. European courts as well as UN-institutions have long acknowledged the organized violence which, according to legal experts, amounts to crimes against humanity.
Terminating their operational communication with the JRCC Libya could result in fines, detentions, or even the confiscation of the allied NGOs’ rescue assets by the Italian state – in violation of international law. Since 2023, the far-right-wing Italian government has unlawfully detained rescue assets under the so-called Piantedosi Decree.

“We have never recognised these actors as a legitimate rescue authority — they are part of a violent regime enabled by the European Union.” says Ina Friebe, spokesperson of CompassCollective. “Now we are increasingly being pressured to communicate with exactly these actors. This must stop. Ending all operational communication with the so-called Libyan Rescue Coordination Center is both a legal and moral necessity — a clear line against European complicity in crimes against humanity.”
“It is not only our right but our duty to treat armed militias as such in our operational communication — not as legitimate actors in search and rescue operations,” says Giulia Messmer, Sea-Watch spokesperson. “Those who save lives act in accordance with international law. Those who organise or finance violence, violate it.”
“All rescue organizations jointly saved more than 155.000 people from drowning in the last 10 years. We will not be coerced into communicating our operational position to EU-funded armed militias, shooting at people fleeing to safety and our rescue crews.” emphasizes Janna Sauerteig, Advocacy Manager at SOS Humanity.

The Justice Fleet brings together legal, political, and public strategies to defend people seeking safety as well as search and rescue operations against illegal push- and pullbacks, and state repression. European courts — from Italian courts to the European Court of Human Rights — have repeatedly confirmed that deportations at sea to Libya violate international law.
A comprehensive overview of extreme acts of violence by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard as well as the first ever overview about won court cases of search and rescue organizations since 2023 can be found on the newly published website justice-fleet.org

All alliance members from Germany, France, Italy, and Spain: CompassCollective, Louise Michel, Mediterranea Saving Humans, Mission Lifeline, Pilotes Volontaires, RESQSHIP, r42 – sail and rescue, Sea-Eye, Sea Punks, Sea-Watch, Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario, SOS-Humanity and Tutti gli occhi sul Mediterraneo (TOM)