The Mediterranean has long been a space of friction, across which ‘irregular/ised’ migratory trajectories have evolved in light of militarised means of control. This talk highlights how the central Mediterranean has become increasingly ‘borderised’, with EU member states trying to order and discipline migrant mobilities. While the cost of such violent ordering and disciplining has been immeasurable, EU border militarisation has not ended maritime crossings. In fact, numbers of arrivals are increasing once more. At great risk and cost, people from the ‘Global South’ continue to subvert EU borders. Through the lens of migrant struggle and defiance, this talk reflects on the mobility conflicts that have unfolded over the past decade in the Mediterranean borderzone.