Human Rights Watch visited the Rosarno region from January 20 through 22, interviewing nine African migrants, as well local authorities, the police, and civil society representatives.

Migrants drowning at sea after being turned away from shore. Children detained with adults and at risk of physical and sexual abuse. Workers cheated out of wages and confined to their workplace. Authorities extorting bribes. Governments denying health care benefits to those who might most need it.

Many governments’ policies toward migrants worldwide expose them to human rights abuses including labor exploitation, inadequate access to health care, and prolonged detention in poor, overcrowded conditions.

An Italian court’s conviction of 23 agents of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for kidnapping is an historic repudiation of the CIA’s crimes. The Milan court also found that two Italian officials illegally collaborated in CIA abuses.

The verdict expected Wednesday in a landmark case may present a historic legal challenge to the US Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) rendition program.

The return of one man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing to Libya, where he got a hero's welcome, has caused an international outcry while the return of hundreds of boat migrants to Libya, where they face certain detention and probable brutal mistreatment, causes nary a peep.

African immigrants who attempt the dangerous boat journey across the Mediterranean to Italy face a double dose of hardship. Since May, if their vessels are intercepted by the Italian authorities, they have been summarily returned to Libya, where migrants typically suffer widespread mistreatment.

Italy intercepts African boat migrants and asylum seekers, fails to screen them for refugee status or other vulnerabilities, and forcibly returns them to Libya, where many are detained in inhuman and degrading conditions and abused.