One year after Medusa‘s first journey by protothema.gr to Gavdos and southern Crete, we return to the migration issue—this time following the route in reverse.

We cross to the other side of the Mediterranean, to Libya, where the final and most dangerous leg of the journey to Europe begins. We meet people from Sudan, Eritrea, and Bangladesh, listen to their stories, and document the routes that brought them to the Libyan coast.

“I came to Tobruk to cross the sea. I want to find a better life than the one we had in Sudan,” one of the people waiting for the opportunity to depart tells us.

As he explains, Sudanese migrants pay approximately 15,000 Libyan dinars for a place on a boat. He does not know the exact destination.

“We’ll reach a Greek island. Then we’ll go to the reception facilities. We’ll see what happens.”

This is the reality behind the arrival statistics. People who have already crossed borders, deserts, war zones, and endured months of waiting hand over the savings of entire families to smuggling networks, with no guarantee that the boat will ever reach Greece.

Medusa also documents the reasons why, for many, returning home is impossible.

A young man from Eritrea describes the personal cost of his escape:

“My mother was imprisoned because I didn’t join the army. When I escaped, they jailed my mother. She was never released.”

When asked whether he has considered returning, his answer is unequivocal:

“I don’t want to go back. If I return, they may imprison me.”

With rare access to the devastated old city of Benghazi, the new episode also documents the scars of a country still trying to rebuild after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, the civil war, the dominance of militias, and battles against jihadist organizations.

Libya is attempting to heal its own wounds while simultaneously dealing with migration pressures that exceed its capacity.

According to a Libyan official, 41,000 migrants of various nationalities were recorded in the country’s eastern region alone during the previous year. Overall estimates presented in the documentary place the number of migrants currently in Libya at more than one million.

The authorities argue that organized cross-border smuggling networks are behind the departures, exploiting people fleeing war, persecution, and extreme poverty.

“The migration issue has been infiltrated by terrorist groups, Islamists, organized crime, and transnational criminal networks,” one of the officials interviewed by Medusa says.

At the same time, Libyan officials complain that European assistance remains inadequate.

“We have held ten meetings with the European Union, but we have received no support,” one official states, calling for “real action” rather than political commitments.

He also insists that efforts to address the problem must begin before migrants reach Libya:

“If you truly want to help, you must support their countries of origin.”

A prominent part of the documentary features a senior officer of the Libyan Coast Guard who speaks Greek after having trained at the Hellenic Naval Academy. He confirms ongoing cooperation with Greece but warns that patrols and limited naval resources are insufficient to monitor Libya’s vast coastline and the constantly changing methods used by smuggling networks.

The Libyan authorities are equally firm regarding the possibility of migrants settling permanently in the country.

“We do not want them to settle here. We do not want the European Union or the United Nations to settle them here. That is a red line for us.”

The new Medusa mission is not simply about documenting the boats leaving Libya. It seeks to uncover the people, the trafficking networks, the causes, and the political responsibilities behind a migration route that has now become firmly established, directly connecting Libya’s shores with Gavdos and Crete.