Previously unpublished surveillance footage recorded by the EU’s border agency Frontex has reignited accusations that migrant rescue NGO Sea-Watch operates in close coordination with boats launched by people-smuggling networks in the central Mediterranean.
The footage appears to show a Sea-Watch rescue vessel sailing directly towards a boat carrying migrants before any visible distress call or emergency situation had been established on May 11.
These images were captured about 40 nautical miles northeast of Tripoli.
On board were about ninety migrants, but also five masked men dressed in paramilitary uniforms distributing life jackets and supervising the boarding of migrants to the Sea-Watch 5 tenders.
The footage also shows one of them waving his hand, then giving a thumbs up, to the members of the NGO before leaving, giving it the appearance of a smooth-running operation rather than an emergency situation.
The hooded men are apparent people smugglers and once the migrants were transferred to the Sea Watch, they threw migrant belongings into the sea and leave the scene at a high speed.
«Le Figaro» a consulté une vidéo de Frontex, l’agence européenne chargée du contrôle des frontières, montrant des passeurs remettre des migrants à l’ONG Sea-Watch en mer Méditerranée, le 11 mai. La justice italienne a ouvert une enquête pour «aide à l’immigration illégale.… pic.twitter.com/iuRHm11bce
— Le Figaro (@Le_Figaro) July 16, 2026
A European security source specialising in Libya said it were “very rare images”.
According to the French newspaper, the Frontex recordings show the NGO vessel making contact with the migrants shortly after departure from the Libyan coast, raising questions over whether the rescue was coordinated in advance.
Le Figaro described the images as reviving long-standing suspicions of “real collusion” between some NGO rescue ships and migrant smugglers, allegations that have repeatedly surfaced in European political debates.
The footage illustrates a de facto operational model in which smugglers launch migrants into the sea, expecting NGO vessels to complete the journey to Europe.
Several European governments, particularly Italy under successive administrations, have long argued that NGO rescue operations create a “pull factor” by giving traffickers confidence that migrants will be picked up shortly after leaving the North African coast.
The newly published footage is said to originate from Frontex aerial surveillance, which has increasingly monitored both migrant departures and the movements of NGO rescue vessels operating in the central Mediterranean.
Le Figaro also found a trove of video’s on social media, by migrants who made and filmed the journey, further confirming their suspicions.
Italian authorities are reportedly investigating the videos.
Sea-Watch strongly rejected the allegations, accusing “far right” media outlets of attempting to criminalise humanitarian rescue operations.
“The far right turns saving lives into a smear campaign,” the German NGO said in a statement responding to the reports.
They denied the apparent cordial relationship with the people smugglers, claiming, “The rescue team was confronted with masked men, a severe danger both to the crew and to the people in distress. Every further step taken by the Sea-Watch crew was to de-escalate this very dangerous situation: to save lives. At every stage, the relevant authorities were informed”.
“Sea-Watch’s course will not be altered neither by criminal prosecution nor by this smear campaign. The work of Sea-Watch has always been transparent, and it will remain focused on the people suffering from EU border violence. No manufactured scandal alters Sea-Watch’s commitment to freedom of movement or to saving lives that EU policy continues to endanger.”
His party colleague and ex-director of Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri said, “For years and even today, I have been accused because I was denouncing what Frontex was observing on the ground. Yet, our drones and our planes were already detecting disturbing behaviors. Contacts between certain NGOs and smugglers, GPS coordinates disseminated, nighttime light signals, deactivation of radar beacons followed by reactivation hours later with an SOS…”
“For years, certain NGOs have been seeking to tarnish Frontex and the coast guards in order to discredit public authority. It is time to ask whether they are all truly pursuing an exclusively humanitarian objective, or whether some are serving, deliberately or not, the interests of the smuggling and trafficking networks that thrive on human misery.”
The controversy comes as migration across the central Mediterranean remains one of the EU’s most politically divisive issues. Frontex has repeatedly warned that organised smuggling networks continue adapting their methods despite a decline in irregular arrivals this year, while several member states have called for stricter oversight of NGO rescue operations.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made disrupting migrant-smuggling networks and curbing NGO rescue operations a cornerstone of her migration policy.
Since taking office, her government has tightened rules governing NGO rescue ships, requiring them to sail immediately to assigned ports after a rescue and imposing fines and vessel detentions for repeated violations.
Italy has also expanded cooperation with Libya and Tunisia and struck a landmark agreement with Albania to process certain asylum seekers outside the EU, measures Meloni argues are aimed at breaking the smugglers’ business model by reducing the incentive for irregular crossings.
Brussels is proposing new sanctions against migrant smugglers.
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— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 10, 2026
