(LIBYA) – Amnesty International accused the EU on June 22, 2026 of being “complicit” in abuses tied to a new crackdown on migrants in Libya. Brussels is deepening migration cooperation with Libyan authorities as mass arrests, detentions, and expulsions intensify.

The rights group said the crackdown has escalated “in the last month.” Both Libya’s western and eastern authorities are involved while the EU seeks to expand cooperation with rival Libyan forces and allied armed groups.

Amnesty said the bloc had already been “complicit in horrific violations and abuses” through financial support for the Libyan coast guard. It also described Libya as “xenophobic and racist” in its criticism of EU migration cooperation.

The statement landed as European officials move to deepen migration ties with Libyan authorities despite worsening treatment of migrants and refugees. Amnesty cast that approach as a continuation, not a break, from earlier policy.

Its criticism tied the current crackdown to an existing pattern of cooperation between Europe and Libyan actors on migration control. That includes previous EU funding for the Libyan coast guard, a force long central to efforts to stop migrants from crossing the Mediterranean.

Amnesty’s account placed both of Libya’s competing power centers inside the same campaign. Western and eastern authorities, despite their rivalry, were described as carrying out arrests, detention and expulsions. At the same time, Brussels was looking to broaden contacts with forces and armed groups on both sides.

That combination sits at the center of Amnesty International’s allegation against the EU. The group did not frame Brussels as a distant observer. It said European support and planned cooperation linked the bloc directly to what migrants and refugees were facing on the ground.

The language was unusually blunt. Amnesty did not accuse the EU merely of ignoring abuse, but of being “complicit,” a term that in rights advocacy carries the argument that outside funding and cooperation help make violations possible.

Its reference to “horrific violations and abuses” centered on financial backing for the Libyan coast guard. Amnesty’s criticism argued that EU support for migration enforcement in Libya has not remained separate from the conduct of the authorities and groups carrying it out.

Libya has for years served as a main departure point for migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe. The EU’s strategy has focused heavily on containing those movements before people reach European shores, including cooperation with Libyan actors that can intercept, detain or expel them.

Amnesty’s latest statement argued that this strategy is now expanding at the same moment conditions are deteriorating. It said mass arrests, detentions and expulsions are intensifying, not easing, even as the EU explores wider cooperation with rival forces and their allied armed groups.

By naming both eastern and western authorities, Amnesty widened responsibility for the crackdown beyond a single administration or militia network. The group’s description suggested a migration sweep unfolding across Libya’s divided political map rather than in one isolated area.

The EU’s interest in broader cooperation with Libyan actors reflects the weight migration policy carries in European politics. Amnesty’s intervention challenged that policy from a rights perspective, arguing that the bloc is pushing deeper into arrangements with forces operating inside an abusive system.

Its description of Libya as “xenophobic and racist” sharpened that argument further. Amnesty used that phrase to portray hostility toward migrants and refugees as part of the environment in which European migration cooperation is taking place, not as a separate problem that can be managed alongside it.

That framing also tied current arrests and expulsions to the longer-running EU-Libya migration deal. Amnesty’s criticism suggested that the latest crackdown should be read against that backdrop of funding, coordination and externalized border control, with migrants and refugees bearing the cost.

No new policy reversal accompanied the statement. Instead, the dispute now turns on whether the EU continues to deepen ties with Libyan authorities and armed groups while Amnesty International says the consequences are already visible in the form of intensifying detentions and expulsions across Libya.