Since 2014, around half a million people have entered Fortress Europe through Italy. Over the past three weeks, however, the Italian state has adopted strong measures to stop African and Asian migrants from arriving. Attempting to dam the great breach in Fortress Europe’s battlements, Italy has put the full range of its resources into action: the military, the judiciary, the interior ministry, the diplomatic service, the right-wing press, private mercenaries, organized fascists, the church, and the secret service are now working together to shore up the Italian coastline.

A year of propaganda, criminalization, and skulduggery cleared the way for this final push, which handed the Italian government’s right wing control of international and Libyan waters. This Mediterranean coup has pushed humanitarian organizations out and empowered the Libyan militia. We can already see the disastrous results: whereas over five thousand people arrived in the first week of August 2016, only one thousand people have made it to Italy so far this month. There have been no landings for over a week. Zero boats.

The consequences will be painful, even fatal, for those African and Asian workers and families  trying to create a better future in Europe. Tens of thousands of migrants remain imprisoned in Libyan concentration camps, often subject to torture and slavery. Over the past week alone, the Libyan militia has captured over one thousand people and returned them to African ports.