In recent weeks hundreds of young men and boys from the Dadaab refugee camps have been secretly recruited for the force, lured with false promises of lavish pay and claims of backing from the United Nations and the United States.

The Kenyan government should immediately stop the recruitment of Somalis in refugee camps to fight for an armed force in Somalia. Kenyan authorities have directly supported the drive, which has recruited hundreds of Somali men and boys in the sprawling Dadaab refugee camps as well as Kenyan citizens from nearby towns.

The Government of Burundi should immediately evaluate the claims of up to 400 Rwandan asylum seekers and stop all efforts to coerce them to leave the country.

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.

National governments, in cooperation with international agencies and donors, should reconsider deportation policies for people living with HIV/AIDS.

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.

Egyptian authorities should bring an immediate end to the unlawful killings of migrants and asylum seekers near Egypt's Sinai border with Israel.

The European Commission's pressure on Italy to report on its forced - and reportedly brutal - return of migrants to Libya is welcome. But the statement by Jacques Barrot, the Commission's vice-president, that these were isolated incidents unlikely to be repeated, because the Libya-Italy agreement will mean "fewer illegal migrants coming in", is cause for concern.