Officials at the headquarters of Europe’s border control agency Frontex, located in Warsaw, have seen a lot. On their screens, they keep watch on one of the most important refugee routes to Europe: across the central Mediterranean. Drones and aircraft are constantly transmitting images – frequently of boats in distress, of fatal accidents, sometimes of violence.

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But what they witnessed on October 12, 2025, was beyond the norm.

That day, as the officials would later document the incident, a fishing boat was heading north across the Mediterranean. Crowded on board were 140 people who had set off from the Libyan coast.