27/08/2025 Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“Following the firing of shots by a Libyan patrol boat at SOS Méditerranée's Ocean Viking on 24 August 2025, I am very concerned about safety at sea, both for migrants in distress crossing European waters and for coast guards, navies, NGOs, and volunteers who risk their lives to rescue them,” said Sandra Zampa (Italy, SOC), rapporteur on “The challenges and needs of public and private actors involved in migration management”.
“This serious event in the Mediterranean’s international waters should highlight the need for nations to uphold maritime and international humanitarian law. It begins with fully implementing existing international agreements, especially the European Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” she underlined.
The Parliamentary Assembly, in Resolution 2613 (2025), called on member states to strengthen co-operation between public authorities, local communities, and civil society supporting refugees and asylum seekers, and to remove legal and administrative obstacles to humanitarian action.
Moreover, in Resolution 2612 (2025), the Assembly called on member states to re-establish large-scale European search-and-rescue operations, by creating a European sea search-and-rescue corps with the sole mandate of saving lives at sea in full respect of international human rights law.
“Given extensive reports describing unacceptable violations of human rights and international maritime law by the Libyan Coast Guard authority and the Libyan General Administration for Coastal Security, the Assembly calls in the abovementioned resolution on member states to reconsider their co-operation with these authorities, including their funding, training and provision of equipment, in order to ensure they fully respect their human rights obligations,” the rapporteur concluded.