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.

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

Two Uzbek asylum seekers have been missing since July 30, 2009, from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, raising fears that they were forcibly returned to Uzbekistan.

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.  

The Greek government has come up with a novel solution to a growing backlog of asylum appeals: Abolish appeals.  No backlog. No Problem.

Greek authorities are arresting large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in the country's cities and islands and moving many of them to the north, raising fears of illegal expulsions to Turkey.

Ganga Baral is among the first of thousands of Bhutanese refugees who will be arriving in the United States during the next several years. She and her family arrived this Spring in Phoenix from a refugee camp in the farthest eastern reaches of Nepal, a landlocked country known to Americans, if at all, as the location for Mount Everest.