Cowering as they are beaten with a makeshift whip, these defenceless African migrants are setting out on a dangerously overladen rubber dinghy across the perilous Mediterranean.

This shocking scene caught on video reveals the horror of people-traffickers smuggling illegal migrants into Europe – and, astonishingly, the ringleaders are coastguard officials paid by British taxpayers to stop the deadly criminal trade.

The EU, including the UK, is spending £160 million in Libya to deter migrants from making the journey during which thousands have already drowned, including 784 people so far this year alone.

The money has gone on recruiting and training coastguards and supplying communications and rescue equipment, boats and vehicles.

Libyan Coastguard official and people smuggling kingpin Abd Al Rahman al-Milad whips migrants as they board a dangerously overladen rubber dinghy

But a UN investigation has named the head of the coastguard unit in Zawiya, about 20 miles from Tripoli, as a people-smuggling kingpin who is in cahoots with other criminals, including members of his crews.

Abd Al Rahman al-Milad, 31, who once fought with rebels to overthrow dictator Muammar Gaddafi, is using patrol vessels bought with EU money to chase down boats containing migrants who have paid his rivals, shooting at them and sinking their boats.

He and his gang are also reported to have removed the outboard motors of rival boats, leaving them to drift in the Mediterranean, and to have attacked international rescue vessels.

The UN Security Council has announced financial and travel sanctions against Milad and five others, freezing their assets globally and confining them to Libya – the first time such measures have been used against people-traffickers.

Another is Malid's associate Mohammed Kachlaf, a Libyan government official in charge of external security at Zawiya's oil refinery.

He is head of the fearsome al-Nasr armed militia and provides protection for Milad's gang.

Al-Nasr gunmen run an illicit detention centre for migrants who are captured at sea. The UN investigation found inhumane conditions there where women and children are living in a 'critical' state.

Many of the migrants are frequently beaten, with men auctioned as slaves in open markets and women sold for sex. There are reports of multiple rapes, disease and deaths.

It is not only Milad's activities that are funded by European taxpayers – he even went to Rome for an EU-financed workshop in May last year, staying at the four-star Hotel Clodio.

Milad is using patrol vessels bought with EU money to chase down boats containing migrants who have paid his rivals, shooting at them and sinking their boats

He is reported to have graduated from Libya's Naval Academy six years ago, then formed a militia with fellow members of the Awlad Bu Hmeira tribe, taking control of the port and announcing himself as head of the coastguard.

A rival warlord, Ahmad Oumar Al-Dabbashi – known as The Uncle – is also listed for sanctions. His militia controls beaches where migrants are piled into flimsy boats by night.

There have been shoot-outs between the two gangs, with bodies later washed up on the Zawiya coastline or found dumped in the desert.

A fourth Libyan, Mus'ab Abu-Quarin, is described as a central character in human-trafficking with networks in Libya, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. He is listed for sanctions.

Two Eritreans, Fitiwi Abdelrazak and Ermias Ghermay – who is described as the leader of a trans-national network smuggling tens of thousands of people – are said to have accumulated immense wealth through the exploitation of migrants in Libya. They are also now under financial and travel sanctions.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the sanctions, saying: 'There must be accountability for exploitation and human rights abuses.'

Milad pictured with henchmen on board one of his coastguard boats

The US has gone further and added its own sanctions. Sigal Mandelker, Under-Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said: 'These brutal smuggling groups have tortured, robbed and enslaved migrants seeking a better life.'

A Treasury statement said a member of Milad's coastguard unit had been filmed striking migrants with a bullwhip aboard a small rubber dinghy.

'Milad and other coastguard members have been directly involved in the sinking of migrant boats using firearms, some reportedly in an attempt to undermine the smuggling business of his and Kachlaf's competitors.'

The EU's £160 million budget is intended to focus on protecting migrants and refugees. In addition it supports Operation Sophia, the naval initiative which started in 2015 with the aim of stopping human-trafficking in the Mediterranean.

Its mandate has now been extended until December and broadened to include training of the Libyan coastguard.

Member nations contribute to the initiative and the patrol fleet at their own cost.

Merkel on the brink over border crisis German Chancellor Angela Merkel is refusing to back down over a migrant crisis that could end her long reign and send shockwaves across Europe. The Continent's longest-serving leader is fighting for her political life after her interior minister Horst Seehofer insisted border police turn back asylum seekers from tomorrow, ending a policy that has admitted more than a million migrants since 2015. Standoff: Merkel is rowing with Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (pictured together) over his plans to send back migrants who have registered in other European Union countries Embattled Merkel must now decide whether to fire Seehofer – a move likely to bring down her coalition government – or abandon her controversial open-border migration policy which is opposed by most Germans. Meanwhile, 629 migrants on the charity ship Aquarius are today expected to arrive in Valencia after Italy turned them away. Merkel and Italian president Giuseppe Conte are due to meet at a summit in Berlin tomorrow. Advertisement

Britain has previously provided a destroyer and a frigate, along with three attack helicopters, and currently deploys the survey ship HMS Echo as part of the fleet. Royal Marines have trained Libyan coastguard recruits.

Last year a House of Lords sub-committee found that Operation Sophia had failed to stop the flow of migrants, and concluded the initiative 'has not in any meaningful way deterred migrants or disrupted criminal networks'.

Since 2014, more than 1.6 million migrants have arrived in Europe after the crossing from Libya, according to the International Organisation for Migrants.

Of that number, 16,328 drowned or are still missing.