Europe is bankrolling a force that routinely abuses African migrants

THE JOURNEYMSFMSF of the was a long, tense stand-off punctuated by moments of frantic effort. For weeks the ship, operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (), a French-founded medical charity, bobbed in international waters off Libya’s Mediterranean coast. Its crew watched for boats full of migrants—as did patrols run by Libya’s coastguard, which has threatened aid-workers who try to stage rescues. From time to time, the radio would crackle with warnings. “You have to sail away from this zone,” coastguard officials would say. “Otherwise immigrants will see you and sail towards you.”When they spotted a migrant boat, both parties would rush to reach it first. For a few days, the Libyans won the race. With the help of drones and manned planes circling overhead, the coastguard caught four rafts carrying migrants. After a week, though, the crew picked off one boat after another. Soon more than 300 migrants occupied every inch of the ship’s decks: Senegalese, Sudanese, Syrians—many with horror stories of their time in Libya, which they shared with the Outlaw Ocean Project, a non-profit journalism organisation with which collaborated on this story.