EU funds Haftar's Libya forces to stem migration despite documented rights abuses

The European Union is funding and training the military forces of Libyan General Khalifa Haftar, a man who controls detention camps where migrants are systematically tortured, abused, and extorted for ransom. This is not a secret arrangement conducted in shadow. It is official policy, documented in internal EU memos, carried out through a restructured naval operation called IRINI, and already underway in Italian and Greek ports. The arrangement exists because Brussels has concluded it has no choice.

Migration has become the defining political crisis of the European Union. Waves of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean have energized far-right parties across the continent, and EU governments are desperate to stop the flow. They have already made themselves dependent on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, paying a steep economic and political price to keep refugees from reaching Greek islands. They have even received delegations from Afghanistan's Taliban government to facilitate deportations. But according to an investigation by Der Spiegel, the arrangement with Haftar represents a new threshold of moral compromise.

Haftar is a Libyan-American general who spent more than two decades in the Washington area before returning to Libya in 2011. Since 2014, his forces have controlled vast stretches of eastern and southern Libya, including major oil fields. The country itself has been fractured since 2011, when Moammar Gadhafi's regime collapsed into civil war. Two rival governments now claim legitimacy: one in Tripoli, recognized by the United Nations and backed by Turkey and Qatar, and one in the east, supported by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, and France. Haftar leads the eastern faction. In April 2019, he launched an offensive on Tripoli that many believed would succeed, but after 14 months it failed.

Until 2024, almost no refugee boats departed from eastern Libya for Crete or Sicily, despite the short distance—a few hundred kilometers. That year, 5,000 refugees made the crossing. Last year, the number jumped to 20,000. The EU responded by negotiating an agreement to fund, equip, and train Haftar's forces. The plan includes building command-and-control centers and radar stations, conducting joint training exercises, and establishing a maritime rescue coordination center in Benghazi. At least 3 million euros has been allocated. Training courses have already begun in Taranto, Italy, and Thessaloniki, Greece. Participants are expected to serve on IRINI vessels for ten-day rotations.

The EU officially claims it is working only with the coast guard of eastern Libya's government. But Der Spiegel's investigation found that at least some of those coast guard members are actually members of the Tareq Bin Zeyad militia, known as TBZ, a brutal unit controlled by Saddam Haftar, the general's son. Two participants in the Thessaloniki training course posted photos of themselves on social media with captions reading "TBZ, the family." When confronted about the connection, one insisted he was not a member of TBZ and claimed not to know what the initials meant—despite having used them himself in his social media post. When pressed further, he responded with profanity.

The mechanics of the arrangement reveal its true nature. Haftar's family profits from migration in both directions: by facilitating departures when it suits them and by preventing them when leverage is needed. Migrants held in detention camps under Haftar's control are tortured and abused, then forced to pay ransom for their release before attempting the sea crossing. Once intercepted by the EU-trained and equipped forces, they are returned to the same camps. Wolfram Lacher, an expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, explained that the Haftars control the escape route to Crete as they see fit, opening it and closing it according to their interests. Their primary goal is not better equipment from the EU but political recognition.

EU diplomats understand exactly what is happening. In early July, Nicola Orlando, the EU ambassador to Libya, described a meeting with senior Haftar regime figures in private talks with European diplomats. According to a summary obtained by Der Spiegel from the German Foreign Ministry, Orlando said Haftar and his family were using migrants "as a means to an end and as a business model." He noted that departures for Crete had risen sharply but added: "The EU has so far had nothing to offer eastern Libya; hopefully that will change." Brussels also rejected a request from the internationally recognized western Libyan government to increase monitoring of oil smuggling—activity that benefits Haftar-controlled militias—explicitly citing fear of retaliatory migrant surges.

Der Spiegel described the arrangement as an "EU surrender," noting that Brussels appears willing to enter into a partnership it knows is morally questionable and unstable. The EU cannot afford hesitation, according to Operation IRINI commander Marco Casapieri of Italy, because otherwise migratory pressure would increase. This is the logic of blackmail made official: the EU funds and trains the forces of a man it suspects will use migrants as leverage, because the alternative—allowing more migrants to reach Europe—is politically unacceptable. The question now is how deep this entanglement will go, and what Haftar will demand next.