On 1 September 2020, two Italian fishing vessels from Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, were seized by Libyan forces operating under the authority of the Benghazi unrecognized government. The seizure took place approximately 38 miles off the coast of Cyrenaica. The fishermen of the two boats – eight Italians, six Tunisians, two Indonesians, and two Senegalese – were accused of fishing in Libyan waters and were transferred to Libyan soil where they began a period of detention that would last 108 days.^[1] The fishing vessels were also seized by the Libyan militia.