Invisible Migrants: EU Border Militarisation on the Central Mediterranean Route

Author: Isabelle Lee 

This article contains references to sexual violence and abuse that some readers may find distressing. Reader discretion is advised. If you have experienced or are affected by issues of sexual violence, support is available through the Human Rights and Equity Office, or Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Services.   

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Between January and August of 2025, irregular migration into the European Union fell by 21%. Yet, the Central Mediterranean route---North Africa to Italy---remains the busiest route into Europe and the deadliest migration route in the world with nearly 42,000 migrants detected this year. 

Not only do migrants travel using unequipped and cramped boats, but before departure they endure extortion, torture, enslavement, arbitrary detention, and sexual violence. 

This migration pattern is driven by a compound crisis of declining economic opportunities, armed conflict, gender-based violence, climate pressures, and worsening food insecurity.  

Image source: Hungary Today 2025

Women make up 10% of Central Mediterranean migrants; however, they face disproportionate risks of sexual violence from smugglers, armed militants and gangs, and state security forces.  

Below are testimonies from these “invisible migrants,” collected by humanitarian organisations, illustrating the brutality experienced by women during migration:

• Bintou, from Cameroon, was offered as a ‘wife’ to buyers in Libya, a transaction enabled by smugglers who profit from EU-funded interception agreements.  

• Linda, from Syria, was beaten after refusing a smuggler’s sexual advances. 

• Janice, from Cameroon, was raped while crossing into Niger.  

• Ramya, from Eritrea, was gang-raped at gunpoint while detained.  

• Salma, from Sudan, was impregnated while raped.  

Sexual violence has become so commonplace that many women pre-emptively take contraceptive pills.  

The EU’s Frontex patrols and bilateral agreements with Libyan and Tunisian coast guards ostensibly deter irregular migration. In practice, these measures push migrants onto longer, costlier, and deadlier routes while strengthening smuggling networks demand “rape as payment” and forced sex work to finance migration.  

In Tunisia and Libya, Black migrants endure heightened risks of xenophobic and racially motivated crimes, while Christian migrants endure religious persecution by armed Islamic State militants.  

Though the EU treats migration as a threat to be contained, the EU’s cooperation with Libyan and Tunisian coast guards continue to reproduce the vulnerabilities---sexual violence, trafficking, and exploitation---most women are escaping. Furthermore, if migrants arrive in Europe, they will likely experience difficulties securing legal residence, work authorisation, medical care, and psychological care; leaving migrant women  disproportionately vulnerable to be trafficked into sex work, particularly in Italy.  

Furthermore, the rise of AI-driven surveillance technologies such as facial recognition at ports and predictive risk algorithms threatens to exacerbate racial discrimination against Black migrants. Effective governance frameworks and transparent publication of data usage must guide both border-technology policymaking and efforts toward demilitarisation.  

Evidently, border militarisation in the Central Mediterranean neglects the complex needs of Black women migrants. Protecting these invisible migrants requires far more than rescue missions: this crisis demands equitable and accessible legal services, comprehensive trauma-informed medical and psychological care, and gender-sensitive asylum protections. The EU must also immediately suspend externalisation agreements with abusive coast guards and adopt a women-centred approach to border policy and security.  

Anything less continues to trade Black women migrants’ liberty, freedom, and dignity for the illusion of safer borders---this human rights crisis demands urgent and immediate action by EU institutions and international human rights bodies.