EU Cooperating with Libyan Warlords to Limit Migration

By Nikolai Antoniadis, Steffen Lüdke and Asia Haidar in Greece, Italy and Hamburg

Officials at the headquarters of Europe’s border control agency Frontex, located in Warsaw, have seen a lot. On their screens, they keep watch on one of the most important refugee routes to Europe: the oversea route across the central Mediterranean. Drones and aircraft are constantly transmitting images – frequently of boats in distress, of fatal accidents, sometimes of violence.

But what they witnessed on October 12, 2025, was beyond the norm.