EU agency Frontex told Libyans where to find migrant boat with children, then watched them run it over

The EU’s border agency, Frontex, shared coordinates of an overcrowded and partly deflated boat in the Mediterranean sea with the Libyan coastguard and then watched them run it over. The boat was carrying 27 people, including children. The findings, by Frontex’s own fundamental rights officer, described an incident that took place on 19 June 2026. And this was just a tiny part of a wider pattern of violence by the EU-backed Libyan coastguard, which has also shot at or near civil rescue vessels. No one was killed in the June event. But people were tossed into the water. Others, pulled onto the Libyan vessel, were then beaten by Libyan uniformed officers. Frontex had issued a Mayday relay and then shared the sightings by email with the Libyan rescue centre. No vessels were reported to be in the vicinity, but the Libyans showed up 90 minutes later. The internal Frontex findings highlight ongoing tensions in the agency over sharing rescue coordinates with the Libyans in the name of saving lives. "Saving lives is the absolute sort of absolute right that people have," Hans Leijtens the agency's director, told EUobserver earlier this year. "And it's our job to contribute to that, and if that sort of starts with looking at which part of the Mediterranean ship is sailing, and if it's a north African country, we all have to inform the authorities there," he added. But his own rights officer also notes that the botched rescue on 19 June amounted to a violation of the right to life, citing article six of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He says the standard is not simply whether the migrants were ultimately rescued, but if the operation was planned and executed to minimise risks to human life. In this case, the Libyans violated that right among others, he says. Frontex did not reply to the findings in the report, as of publication. Let the court decide