--- title: Frontex Thinks NGOs Collude With Smugglers. It's Not Fair description: Confidential documents obtained by the Financial Times show that the EU's border agency accuses NGOs of worsening the migrant crisis canonical: https://time.com/4608908/refugee-migrants-mediterranean-frontex-ngo/ author: Aryn Baker article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-21T15:32:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T14:17:22.000Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Frontex Thinks NGOs Collude With Smugglers. It's Not Fair og:description: Confidential documents obtained by the Financial Times show that the EU's border agency accuses NGOs of worsening the migrant crisis og:url: https://time.com/4608908/refugee-migrants-mediterranean-frontex-ngo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt116fccdabb3cb1aa/6988a48ce20a870d98a923f0/lynsey-addario-mediterranean-migrants-85-10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: lynsey-addario-mediterranean-migrants-85-10 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Frontex Thinks NGOs Collude With Smugglers. It's Not Fair twitter:description: Confidential documents obtained by the Financial Times show that the EU's border agency accuses NGOs of worsening the migrant crisis twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt116fccdabb3cb1aa/6988a48ce20a870d98a923f0/lynsey-addario-mediterranean-migrants-85-10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Don't Blame Rescue-at-Sea Organizations for Migrants Coming to Europe > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a5d8db23-b748-4e4b-820a-6fa743bdeace&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A Desperate Crossing [Watch (HLS stream): A Desperate Crossing](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ERZ02z62.m3u8) (3:16)  _Published 2016-09-02. Watch a rescue operation as the MV Aquarius locates a flimsy rubber dinghy carrying Victoria and more than 130 other migrants._ by [Aryn Baker](https://time.com/author/aryn-baker/) ## Aryn Baker Updated: Dec 13, 2023 2:17 PM UTCPublished: Dec 21, 2016 3:32 PM UTC  Eritrean Orthodox Christian men sing and pray after their rescue, Aug. 21, 2016. Eritrean Orthodox Christian men sing and pray after their rescue, Aug. 21, 2016. Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage for TIME by [Aryn Baker](https://time.com/author/aryn-baker/) ## Aryn Baker Updated: Dec 13, 2023 2:17 PM UTCPublished: Dec 21, 2016 3:32 PM UTC When 22-year-old Mohammad left Libya’s coastline in a decrepit wooden boat headed for Italy in August, he had no illusions about where he would end up. Unlike many smugglers in Libya who lure clients in with false promises of reaching Europe within hours, his agent was brutally frank. It would take about three hours to reach international waters, he explained. Once there the boat would drift until spotted by one of the humanitarian rescue vessels plying the central Mediterranean, at which point he and his fellow passengers would be taken aboard and transferred to Italy, where they could apply for asylum. To Mohammad, a Syrian refugee who asked not to use his full name for fear of harming his asylum chances, it was a reasonable risk. “We knew that there were rescue teams,” he told TIME. “We knew that there were people out there saving people. I believed that I had a better chance of making it.” To [Frontex](http://frontex.europa.eu), the European Union’s border and Coast Guard agency, such instructions are proof that the dozen or so nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) currently running rescue operations in the Mediterranean are contributing to Europe’s migrant crisis, according to [confidential reports](https://www.ft.com/content/3e6b6450-c1f7-11e6-9bca-2b93a6856354) recently obtained by the _Financial Times_. (The newspaper later [retracted](https://www.ft.com/content/eae123e2-c840-11e6-9043-7e34c07b46ef) claims Frontex had accused NGOs of collusion with smugglers.) Migrants were given “clear indications before departure on the precise direction to be followed in order to reach the NGOs’ boats,” the reports say. But does the fact that smugglers are taking advantage of humanitarian groups’ mandate to save lives necessarily mean that the NGOs are in cahoots? Or are the NGOs just the latest scapegoats for Europe’s growing migrant crisis? More than 179,000 migrants crossed the central Mediterranean from Libya to Italy this year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). At least 4,400 died in the attempt. It is all but impossible for an inflatable rubber raft or a dilapidated wooden dinghy to survive the crossing from Libya to Greece, so it is reasonable to assume that every single one of those who made it to Italy was rescued at sea. Some were picked up by military vessels, others by passing commercial ships that are bound by maritime law to come to the aid of boats in distress. But a significant number are rescued by the humanitarian vessels that ply the international waters off the coast of Libya on the lookout for migrant rafts at risk of capsizing.  Photograph by Lynsey Addario—Getty Images Reportage for TIME In August, I [spent a week ](http://time.com/4475621/between-the-devil-and-the-deep-blue-sea/)on the MV Aquarius, a rescue vessel jointly operated by international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, and the search-and-rescue organization SOS Méditerranée. Even then, before the number of crossings this year eclipsed all previous counts, the question of whether or not the widely reported rescues encouraged more migrants to risk the passage sparked fevered debate. “To know the answer to that question, you would have to stop the operations and see how many people would die before they stop leaving Libya,” Federico Soda, director of IOM’s Coordination Office for the Mediterranean, told me at the time. Three out of every four migrants who died crossing borders in 2015 died on the Mediterranean, he noted, and that was with the rescue efforts in place. “Fortunately, people in the E.U. and Italy are not simply going to let tens of thousands drown.” But that doesn’t stop anti-migration activists or E.U. agencies like Frontex from casting blame on the humanitarian organizations bringing the migrants to shore, especially now that many E.U. member nations are actively lobbying against accepting refugees. Frontex also cited in its reports the fact that the number of distress calls had gone down, even as rescues increased; further proof, the agency says, that the humanitarian organizations are actively seeking out migrant boats. But if MSF and other groups like it aren’t out patrolling the edge of Libya’s coastal waters, it is likely that scores of smuggler rafts would disappear without a trace as few are equipped with the kind of satellite phones or sophisticated radio gear necessary to make an emergency call for help. “We can’t let them die,” Soda said. “You don’t fix problems with relief operations; you minimize loss of life.” Like Mohammad, many of the other people rescued by the MV Aquarius when I was aboard told me that they had no choice, that staying at home was impossible. MSF’s onboard doctor, Canadian Sarah Giles, said much the same. “Whether we were here or not people will come anyway. And they will die anyway. And we can look at the pull factors, but I think it is much more important to look at the push. And that goes back to the problems in people’s home countries.” There is no doubt that migration is a growing concern in Europe. But it’s not an issue that can be stopped in the Mediterranean. By the time the migrants have gotten that far, it is already Europe’s problem, and blaming the people trying to save lives won’t fix anything at all. **Read more:** [_Finding Home: Their Families Fled Syria. They Were Born Refugees. What’s Next?_](http://time.com/finding-home/) ## Transcript These rubber boats that we see, they are just mass manufactured very fast and very poor quality. They will never make it. Sometimes they don't even make the 20 nautical miles line. European Warship, this is Astral. Go ahead. 012 Two degrees to 3. 2 meters east is a rubber boat with migrants on board. Okay copy. Just now we will proceed to this location for rescue. [ NOISE ] So it's 20 past eight in the morning on Saturday morning. We've had a call about a rubber boat in distress. It looks like quite a full rubber boat, we should be there in about 10 minutes. We are going to go and start the rescue now. It's one rubber boat, it looks like it's in good condition, for the moment we do it as a normal rescue. Is there any question about this? The material they use is thinner than the inner tube of a bicycle. 120, sometimes, even more people inside, when they are actually Made for half of the amount of people. Hello? Do you speak English? Please stay calm, okay. We are here to help you, okay? Stay calm. We are going to bring you to Italy, okay? There is place for everyone in the big boat. So please just be calm. Okay, stay calm, stay where you are and be calm. Okay slowly please I want you to put your both legs inside the boat. Slowly. If you can put both legs inside the boat. [ NOISE ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] How many children are in the boat. Two children. Two children. Yeah. This is for a child. [ UNKNOWN ] This is for a child too, okay? One by one. Okay? Don't rush. Women first okay? Women first. Do you feel like these boats are designed to make it? No definitely not. They are designed to push the people off the beach and for the rest they don't care how far they can get. The people on the beach they know they can't make it. That know . >> The smugglers know? They know thy will never make it. I have the feeling that they do it for the money and that's it. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] All the testimonies I hear is they were desperate to leave. Do you think any of these people that are coming across, do they know what they are getting into? Some do, and some don't, and I've been talking to people that came on board on this vessel, they said, I'd rather die at sea than stay. [ SOUND ] Rather I die there than here. 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