The European Union is planning to expand cooperation with a powerful Libyan militia leader to stem migration flows across the Mediterranean, according to internal documents obtained by German transparency organization FragDenStaat.
The documents reveal that EU institutions are negotiating agreements with forces loyal to commanders who control key departure points for migrant boats heading to Europe. The cooperation would include funding, equipment, and training for militia groups that human rights organizations have accused of serious abuses against migrants.
This is migration externalization stripped of diplomatic euphemism: Brussels partnering with a warlord to keep people from reaching European shores. The gap between the EU's values rhetoric and its migration realpolitik has never been starker.
The strategy represents the latest iteration of the EU's "externalization" approach to migration - paying third countries to prevent departures rather than managing arrivals in Europe. Previous partnerships with Turkey, Morocco, and Tunisia have reduced crossings but attracted criticism for outsourcing border control to countries with questionable human rights records.
The Libyan cooperation goes further. Unlike partnerships with established governments, the EU would be working directly with armed groups operating in a country without effective central authority. Libya has been fractured between competing factions since the 2011 NATO intervention that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
Human rights groups have documented systematic abuses in Libyan detention centers where intercepted migrants are held, including torture, sexual violence, extortion, and forced labor. International organizations including the UN and UNHCR have described conditions in these facilities as amounting to crimes against humanity.

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