Voice of America’s immigration news

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Hamas says it is reviewing a cease-fire plan in Gaza put forth by Israel that Secretary Blinken calls "extraordinarily generous." The ICC weighs charges on leaders of Hamas and the Israeli government for possible crimes against humanity. Plus, an update from Kyiv.

Gaborone, Botswana — Herds of endangered hippos are stuck in drying ponds in Botswana's northwest as the El Nino-induced drought takes its toll on wildlife. In Botswana, home to one of the world’s largest hippopotamus populations, around 500 hippos are stranded as blistering heat dries up water sources, Moemedi Batshabang, director of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, told VOA.  More than 200 of the endangered animals are stranded at the Nxaraga lagoon near the town of Maun in the northwest.  The Maun-based Save Wildlife Conservation Fund is working with the wildlife department to save the stranded hippos. The group’s director, Lars Gorschlüter, said they are pumping water into the lagoon and giving the hippos food.  "This time it’s a bit harder because of missing rainfall that means hippos are trapped in the pool. They don’t have much food outside to get, that’s why we have to feed them every day with lots of bales of lucerne and others,” Gorschlüter said.  Hippos need water to protect their sensitive skin from Botswana’s extreme heat.  Gorschlüter has ruled out moving the affected animals to areas with reliable water sources, such as the Okavango Delta.    “We also considered the translocation of the hippos, together with the department of wildlife, but rejected it because of high costs and lack of budget,” Gorschlüter said.  Some hippos are also stuck in the mud as water levels recede in the Chobe River, which flows from Namibia. Namibian authorities this week indicated they are working with their Botswana counterparts to drill more boreholes in hopes of refilling the drying channel.  But local conservationist Map Ives urged authorities to let nature “take its course.”  “In a case like this, the hippopotamus, I believe, should be left alone. They have a choice; they can get on their feet, and they can walk. There is always some water within 100 kilometers of where they are. They can walk to that water,” Ives said. “The other alternative … if they are old, weak or sick, is that they will die. Yes, we live in an age where human beings do not want to see animals die, but if you leave nature to itself without human interference, it will balance.”   The El Nino drought that has affected much of southern Africa has meant water is scarce, which has destroyed food sources and critical habitats for other kinds of wildlife as well. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Not only is climate change responsible for sea level rise and extreme weather events, but a new peer-reviewed study signals it may also impact global timekeeping. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details.

MADRID — About 50 migrants were missing after their boat overturned some 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Spain's Canary Island of El Hierro in the Atlantic Ocean, Spanish media reported Monday. The national marine rescue service said one of its helicopters rescued nine people who were found clinging to the boat Monday morning following a warning call from a merchant vessel in the area. State news agency Efe said that once transferred to El Hierro airport, the rescued migrants reported that 60 of them had set sail nine days ago and that the open-topped wooden boat ran into problems Saturday. The rescue service was unable to say how many people may have been on the boat and no one was available to comment at Civil Guard police offices in the Canary Island capital of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Efe said the migrants were of sub-Saharan origin. There were no details on which country they had sailed from. Tens of thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan countries fleeing poverty, conflict and instability in West Africa try to reach Spain each year by boat. Most go in large open vessels to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic, while others from Morocco, Algeria and Middle Eastern countries try to cross the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean to mainland Spain. Several thousand die during the hazardous journey. The Interior Ministry says 16,621 migrants arrived in Spain by boat between Jan. 1 and April 15, up by 11,681 in the same period last year. The vast majority arrived on the Canary Island route.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Nairobi, Kenya — More than 40 people have died in southwestern Kenya after a dam burst Sunday night following heavy rains which spawned devastating flooding across the country. Earlier, several people went missing after their boat capsized in a river in eastern Kenya. Kenyan rescue teams are searching for survivors swept away by floods  in the Mai Mahiu area of Nakuru County. John Karungu, who lives near the dam, said it broke around 2:30 in the morning and that  people on the downstream side pleaded for help as the rushing water engulfed their homes. Karungu and his neighbors managed to rescue several children, but some were swept away. According to residents, at least 16 homes were swept away in the area. Kenyan Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen and Nakuru County Governor Susan Kihika visited the flood zone to assess the damage and mobilize authorities and agencies for rescue operations and aid distribution to the victims. Naivasha Police Commander Stephen Kirui told VOA they have recovered dozens of bodies, and some of the survivors were admitted to hospitals in the area. "So far, we have retrieved 45 bodies. We have not identified the gender of adults and children. Almost three villages have been swept [away], and a large number of people, 110 persons, have been admitted to several hospitals within Naivasha Sub-County," Kirui said. Kirui said it was still raining in the area. Last week, the Kenya Red Cross warned of more rains, called on Kenyans to brace for more flooding, and urged the population to take precautions. Kirui said they have managed to clear the roads, but the flooding threat persists. "The situation is now coming to a [sense of] normalcy, and the roads are passable," Kirui said. "We are trying to remove the trees that have barricaded the roads, and now the roads are passable. I want to advise the members of the public within these areas that they should keep off from the floods. They should move to higher ground whereby they cannot be swept away by the water because there is heavy rain coming, and it may not be good." Kenyan media reports that flooding has claimed the lives of more than 100 people since the rainy season began in mid-March. The death toll is expected to rise after a boat capsized in the Tana River in eastern Kenya over the weekend. The Kenyan Red Cross said it rescued 23 people from the boat, but more than a dozen were still missing. The flooding has prompted the Kenyan government to delay the reopening of schools until next week.

BAGHDAD — Iraq has repatriated hundreds more of its citizens linked to the Islamic State group from a sprawling camp in northeastern Syria, Iraqi and Syrian officials said Monday.  Ali Jahangir, a spokesman for Iraq's Ministry of Migration and Displaced, said the nearly 700 Iraqis, mostly women and children, arrived late Sunday at a camp near Iraq's northern city of Mosul, where they will undergo a rehabilitation program with the help of international agencies in an effort to distance them from extremist ideology.  Despite an aggressive repatriation campaign by Baghdad, Iraqis remain the largest nationality among the nearly 43,000 residents of al-Hol camp which houses the wives, widows, children and other family members of IS militants. Syrians are the second-largest nationality. More than 6,000 people from 57 other countries are housed in a separate area known as the Annex.  "These are Iraqi citizens that we have to rehabilitate," Jahangir said. "Leaving them at al-Hol camp means they are a time bomb that could threaten Iraq's security."  In 2014, IS declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria and attracted tens of thousands of supporters from around the world. The extremists were defeated by a U.S.-led coalition in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. Tens of thousands of people linked to the group were taken to al-Hol camp close to the Iraqi border.  The heavily guarded camp, overseen by the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, was once home to 73,000 people.  Sheikhmous Ahmad, a Kurdish official overseeing camps for displaced in northeastern Syria, said 187 families consisting of 697 Iraqis were repatriated Sunday. He said it was the 15th group to return home.  An SDF official, Siamand Ali, said the presence of foreigners at al-Hol and the smaller Roj camp is a burden on the force that also protects the facilities and raids IS sleeper cells that carry out deadly attacks in Syria.  "Repatriating them to their countries is a positive step and reduces the pressure on us," Ali said.  Iraq's Yazidi community has expressed concerns over the repatriations of IS families fearing a repetition of the extremist massacre against the community that took place in 2014. Then, IS militants killed thousands of men and took many women and teenage girls who were held as sex slaves.  Khairi Bozani, the director of office for Yazidi abductees, said they have raised the community's concerns with Iraqi officials because some of the repatriated families are being placed in areas around the Yazidi heartland of Sinjar. Bozani said that even though the returnees are mostly women and children, they still carry the extreme ideology of the Islamic State group.  The office of Iraq's national security adviser said 7,556 citizens have been repatriated from al-Hol. Jahangir said they have no exact figures of how many Iraqis remain at the camp.  Hawar News, the news agency for the semiautonomous Kurdish areas in Syria, said the latest figures from al-Hol show 42,781 people there including 19,530 Iraqis, 16,779 Syrians and 6,461 other nationalities. The agency says 11 residents have not been identified. Last week, Kurdish-led authorities repatriated 50 women and children from al-Hol and Roj camps to Tajikistan.