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EU-funded aggression: How years of impunity led to the attack on the Ocean Viking

01 September 2025

On 24 August, members of the so-called Libyan Coast Guard spent 20 minutes firing hundreds of bullets at humanitarian workers and rescued people on board the Ocean Viking. The attack is the result of years of EU funding, coordination and policy empowering violent actors in an attempt to seal its borders from refugees. What happens next will determine whether international law is reaffirmed or erased entirely.

Summary

Years of European Union (EU) funding, coordination, and policy decisions have contributed to an environment where violence against humanitarian actors at sea has become increasingly normalised.

On 24 August 2025, the so-called Libyan Coast Guard (scLCG) fired upon the Ocean Viking, a Norwegian-flagged humanitarian search and rescue ship operated by SOS Méditerranée and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, while it was operating in international waters.

The ongoing erosion of international maritime and humanitarian protections, driven by European migration and border policies, made this incident possible.

Incident overview

On 24 August 2025, the Ocean Viking came under fire from the scLCG while conducting a search and rescue operation in international waters, around 40 nautical miles north of Libya.

Members of the scLCG shot at the Ocean Viking for 20 minutes using assault weapons, from a patrol boat donated by the Italian government in 2023 through an EU-funded border management programme. 

SOS Méditerranée’s official statement on the attack says bullet impacts were recorded across the ship as the scLCG systematically targeted the crew, the ship’s control centre, survivors from a previous rescue, and critical rescue equipment. Footage from the SOS Méditerrané crew shows the scLCG firing on the ship while the crew and rescued people hid onboard.

While no one on the Ocean Viking was injured, SOS Méditerranée argue that there was a clear intent to kill, indicated by the multiple bullet impacts at head height across the ship. The full extent of the damage is yet to be assessed, but the operation has been terminated for the foreseeable future.

During the attack, the Ocean Viking crew issued a mayday call and contacted the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), for protection from the unprovoked attack. NATO has vessels deployed in the Mediterranean through Operation Sea Guardian for maritime security tasks. International maritime law places an obligation on all vessels receiving a mayday call to respond. The Ocean Viking received no support, even from the Italian NATO Navy vessel stationed nearby the attack.

 

At the time of the attack, the Ocean Viking was operating under the coordination of the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) Rome, actively searching for a reported boat in distress. The search had to be abandoned, and the fate of those on the missing boat remains unknown.

Patterns of unchecked aggression and crimes against humanity

The attack on the Ocean Viking is not an isolated incident. It is part of a wider pattern of escalating violence and impunity in the Central Mediterranean, and Europe’s borders more generally.

Over the past decade, humanitarian organisations and international observers have repeatedly documented gunfire, dangerous interceptions, and forced returns carried out by the scLCG. Humanitarian rescue ships, including the Bourbon Argos, Golfo Azzurro, Sea-Watch, Sea Eye, Geo Barents, Humanity, and the Ocean Viking, have all faced incidents of violence, intimidation and reckless obstruction by the scLCG.

 

Meanwhile, the EU-backed scLCG, Stability Support Authority, General Administration of Coastal Security and armed militias intercept thousands of refugees and migrants at sea, forcibly returning them to detention in Libya, where they endure torture, sexual violence, forced labour, and illegal expulsions. 

The full extent of the impunity is further demonstrated by the Italian government’s decision to ignore the international arrest warrant for Al Masri, a Libyan warlord, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Al Masri was arrested in Turin on 19 January at a football match, but was then quickly flown back to Tripoli on an Italian government aircraft to evade prosecution.

Nevertheless, the EU and its member states continue to fund, equip, and coordinate with Libyan authorities. In doing so, they have normalised violations of international maritime and humanitarian law and made a mockery of the ideas of accountability and justice.

How EU policies fuel impunity

EU migration and border policies rely heavily on authoritarian regimes policing Europe’s borders. All too often, those policies prioritise deterrence over human rights and safety. Despite public commitments to respect human dignity, the EU’s funding and cooperation reinforce violent practices and expose refugees to systemic abuse.

The so-called Libyan Coast Guard’s ability to operate at scale is not self-generated. It is the direct result of long-term EU and member state support. This has included:

• Vessel transfers: At least 20 to 40 boats have been supplied to Libya since 2017, including the Corrubia-class ship used in the August 2025 attack.
• Financial support: Over €465 million has been allocated to Libya through the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, funding border enforcement, surveillance, detention facilities, and search-and-rescue efforts.
• Training and coordination: EU agencies such as Frontex and EUBAM have provided repeated training to Libyan personnel, often without ensuring compliance with international humanitarian law.

All the while, civilian search and rescue organisations are harassed and even prosecuted for upholding international law and protecting lives at sea.

In mid-July, 32 organisations called on the Italian government to halt the obstruction of search and rescue missions, which is underpinned by various government decrees designed to make their operations more difficult, if not impossible.

Since February 2023, NGO rescue ships have been detained by the Italian authorities 29 times, resulting in over 700 days spent in port instead of saving lives. Deliberately assigned to unjustifiably distant ports, they have spent an additional 822 days at sea, covering over 330,000 kilometres unnecessarily.

Libya’s ongoing instability

The Italian government is well aware of the unstable political situation in Libya. Shaped by years of continuous conflict, political segregation, and foreign interference, rival authorities continue to claim legitimacy, while armed groups exert control over territory, resources, and detention centres.

A report by Amnesty International further highlights how arbitrary arrests target activists, journalists, protesters, and others, with thousands detained without due process or following grossly unfair trials. Torture is widespread, and civil society is heavily suppressed. Women, minorities, and LGBTQIA+ people face entrenched discrimination and violence.

Within this fractured context, EU training, vessels, and surveillance are being channelled into a system with minimal oversight. The hypocrisy is most evident in the fact that Frontex itself does not consider Libya a safe country. The European External Action Service holds the same view. 

Entrusting search-and-rescue responsibilities to actors operating within such instability raises serious concerns about safety, accountability, and international law – even more so when those actors have continuously engaged in violence and brutality.

Deterrence over dignity

The attack on the Ocean Viking is the clearest expression yet of a system that prioritises control over care and deterrence over dignity.

If this level of violence passes without meaningful accountability, it risks further eroding the international protections designed to safeguard life at sea and humanitarians. At the time of writing, nearly a full working week after the attack, all the European Commission had managed to say was that they were waiting for the Libyan authorities “to explain what happened.” 

Beyond the Central Mediterranean, this fits into a broader global pattern: humanitarian workers, journalists, and civilians are increasingly being targeted on a daily basis with impunity. What happens next will determine whether international law is reaffirmed or erased entirely.

Author: Daniel Watt

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