A coalition of human rights NGOs is urging the European Commission to halt cooperation with Libya after it attacked a migrant rescue ship, accusing Brussels of funding forces that “enabled and legitimised abuses.”

In a letter obtained by POLITICO and due to be sent to Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner and Mediterranean Commissioner Dubravka Šuica on Wednesday — and copied to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola — the organizations condemn the Aug. 24 assault on the rescue vessel Ocean Viking by the Libyan Coast Guard.

The Ocean Viking, operated by the French NGO SOS Méditerranée, was fired on by a Libyan patrol boat financed by EU funds via Italy’s SIBMMIL program. More than 30 crew members and 87 rescued migrants were on board when hundreds of shots were fired without warning in international waters, according to the NGO.

“While the European Commission stated that Libyan authorities are investigating the incident, weeks after the attack, there is no indication that cooperation, or technical and financial assistance, has been suspended during the course of this investigation,” the letter says.

The signatories — including Amnesty International, ActionAid, SOS Méditerranée, Emergency, Médecins Sans Frontières, Mediterranea Saving Humans, and Refugees in Libya — argue the assault exposes nearly a decade of failed EU policy. 

“Eight years of EU support has not improved these actors’ human rights records, but enabled and legitimised abuses,” they warned, adding that “human lives must not be disregarded in the name of border control.”

The NGOs accuse the Commission of turning a blind eye “despite overwhelming evidence” of human rights violations by Libyan authorities; and of mismanaging its own programs by refusing to show the public the safety checks it conducts to ensure EU-funded projects do not harm people.

They demand that Brussels restores “the rule of law at its maritime border; suspend cooperation with Libya without further delay; urge Italy to terminate its 2017 Memorandum of Understanding with Libya; and urge other Member States to refrain from similar agreements.”

The appeal lands as Libya’s internal turmoil complicates European diplomacy. The country remains split between rival governments in Tripoli and Benghazi, backed by rival powers such as Russia and Turkey. Moscow has expanded its presence with arms deliveries and plans for a naval base in Tobruk, while Ankara has struck maritime deals that Greece deems illegal.

On July 8, an EU mission led by Brunner to Benghazi was abruptly expelled, roiling relations with the eastern Benghazi government. Brunner said Brussels had to keep talking with Benghazi strongman Khalifa Haftar as a necessary step to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from further weaponizing migration.

French MEP Mounir Satouri, from the left-wing Greens/European Free Alliance, who also chairs the Committee on Human Rights (DROI) in the European Parliament, described the EU’s cooperation with Libya as a “slap in the face to those of us who takes European values seriously.”

“Europe cannot continue to fuel human rights violations based solely on its obsession with migration,” he said in a statement Tuesday.