Lauren Southern Detained in Italy After Anti-Migrant Ship Protest Sparks Controversy
Canadian Activist Lauren Southern’s Standoff with Italian Officials
Back in May 2017, Canadian commentator and former Libertarian Party hopeful Lauren Southern found herself at the center of a global controversy. Southern, who once ran as a candidate in Langley-Aldergrove for Canada’s 2015 federal election, traveled to the Mediterranean as part of a campaign orchestrated by the far-right Identitarian movement. Their target? The migrant crisis playing out off the coast of Libya, with NGO ships scrambling to save refugees and migrants risking everything to reach Europe.
Southern joined activists from Génération identitaire, intent on stopping the NGO vessel Aquarius as it set out for another round of sea rescues. The group argued—loudly—that their mission was to halt what they called collusion between aid groups and human traffickers. For them, the rescue ships weren’t just humanitarian; they believed the ships encouraged dangerous voyages. Critics, especially from humanitarian circles, saw it differently. They accused the group of reckless interference and exploiting human suffering for political gains.
The standoff ended with the Italian Coast Guard stopping and briefly detaining Southern and her crew. After questioning, authorities released her, but the spectacle had already ignited debates across Europe and Canada.
After the Protest: Social Media Bans and International Backlash
The protest didn’t just get headlines—it got Southern blacklisted from major fundraising. In July 2017, Patreon cut her off, pointing to safety concerns. The platform stated outright that funding for these missions could potentially endanger lives at sea. Southern pushed back, claiming her aim had always been to save people, not hurt them, and insisted her work with the Defend Europe group—who chartered their own vessel to monitor NGOs—was about stopping illegal migration and people smuggling.
The drama didn’t end there. In 2018, Southern uploaded a video alleging NGO workers were coaching migrants to lie during immigration interviews. The footage claimed to capture a side of the crisis few see. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees wasn’t pleased. They shot back, explaining that Greece had rigorous safeguards and that asylum procedures weren’t as easily manipulated as Southern’s video implied.
Then in 2019, Southern’s name trended again when YouTube temporarily took down her documentary, "Borderless." The film, a deep dive into Europe’s migrant routes and the rescue industry, drew plenty of attention both from supporters and critics who said the work risked inflaming xenophobia. YouTube later restored the film, but by then, Southern's reputation as a lightning rod for controversy was sealed.
It’s easy to forget that before her international activism, Southern’s political career started as a Canadian federal candidate, though her bid in 2015 delivered less than one percent of the vote. But her activism on Europe’s borders changed her profile entirely—landing her in the ocean’s no man’s land between humanitarian aid, political theater, and online outrage. The story of her brief Italian detention spotlighted just how charged—and complicated—the issue of migration across the Mediterranean has become.