Italy's right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, issued a decree Oct. 21 aimed at bypassing judicial obstacles to a controversial deal with Albania to hold and process the claims of asylum-seekers intercepted at sea by Italian forces. The move comes three days after a special immigration court in Rome ruled that the first group of 12 migrants sent to the repurposed military camp at Gjader, Albania, must be returned to Italy. The court found that the migrants' countries of origin—Egypt and Bangladesh—are "unsafe," making their offshore detention illegal. Meloni's decree asserts the executive alone has the power to make such determinations, setting the stage for a showdown between her government and the judiciary. (Politico, DW, BBC News, EuroNews, Jurist, CBC)

Over 40 human rights groups have warned Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk against implementing his plan to temporarily suspend the right to claim asylum. Among the groups are Amnesty International, several asylum law organizations, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. In an open letter on Oct. 14, the organizations stressed that the fundamental right to asylum is binding on Poland under international law, as the country has ratified the Geneva Convention, and under EU law as provided by Article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Additionally, Article 56 of the Polish Constitution enshrines the right to asylum. Acknowledging that "[w]e live in difficult times of war and conflicts breaking out all over the world," the statement nonetheless asserted that fundamental rights, as the core values of Europe, are not subject to discussion or restriction.

With conditions among the asylum seekers on Diego Garcia growing dire and the island set to be ceded to Mauritius, the UK is under pressure to relocate the 56 Sri Lankan asylum seekers stranded there, plus eight receiving medical treatment in Rwanda. On Oct. 8, the UK offered to transfer 36 of them to a UN-run transit center in Timișoara, Romania. After six months there, if they do not accept repatriation or re-settlement in another country, they will be accepted to the UK. The offer reverses years of insistence by UK officials that none of them would be brought to the UK. However, lawyers are trying to have the group brought to the UK directly, arguing that they will end up there anyway, and forcing them to spend six months in a Romanian "detention facility" with barred windows would "cause them to suffer further avoidable harm." One British official said the reason for the six-month detour was to ensure that coming to Diego Garcia does not "provide a direct route to the UK." The lawyers say the transfer of sovereignty to Mauritius negates that concern. The Romania plan has also upset the 28 men who did not receive the offer and have been told they will stay on the island indefinitely if they do not accept repatriation. At least two staged a hunger strike after they heard the news, according to one of the asylum seekers in Rwanda. 

The UK announced Oct. 3 that it will transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, now ruled as the British Indian Ocean Territory, to Mauritius after more than two centuries of control.

A joint statement issued by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth hails the accord as an "historic political agreement on the exercise of sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago," which will mark the end of British control over the islands. The UK-US military base on the archipelago's principal island of Diego Garcia will remain operational for an initial period of 99 years to ensure its continued "vital role in regional and global security." The UK will be "authorised to exercise the sovereign rights of Mauritius" on Diego Garcia. The decision follows two years of negotiations over the future of the islands between the two nations.

The Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), a non-profit organization advocating for Haitian immigrants, filed criminal charges against former US President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, his running mate in the current presidential race, on Sept. 24. The charges, brought before the municipal court in Ohio's Clark County, stem from false claims made by Trump and Vance alleging that Haitian immigrants in the town of Springfield were abducting and eating local pets.

If elected president in November, Donald Trump says he will create a government efficiency commission led by tech billionaire Elon Musk as part of his economic plan. Musk suggested the idea to Trump in a conversation on X, which he bought in 2022 when it was called Twitter. The announcement is the latest display of Musk's growing influence in politics. The self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist" is accused of censoring progressive opinions while amplifying the voices of far-right networks. So far, no one seems to be able to check his growing power, as his recent legal battles with Australia and Brazil have demonstrated. Both countries tried to curtail content deemed harmful, but Musk ignored their requests. After Musk disregarded a judicial order to suspend dozens of X accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation in Brazil, the country's Supreme Court ruled to ban it nationwide. Journalists, who have relied heavily on it, have expressed a mixture of relief and regret at the ban.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Lebanon and Cyprus of violating the human rights of Syrian refugees with indirect financial support from the European Union (EU). In a report released Sept. 4, HRW detailed how both countries have intercepted and forcibly returned refugees to Syria in a coordinated effort to prevent them from seeking asylum in Europe.

Racist violence targeting minority groups in the United Kingdom has entered its second week, in the worst outbreak of civil disorder the country has seen in more than a decade. Mosques, refugee accommodation, and businesses owned by people of color have been among the targets of far-right extremists, who have rioted in over a dozen towns in England and Northern Ireland.