President Joe Biden set the annual refugee cap at 125,000 last October, but as of July, the program has allowed in only 17,690 refugees. Advocates say that the Biden administration is going to fall short of its ambitious target for fiscal 2022, but they note the refugee program is still rebuilding. Biden is expected to set a new ceiling in October. Story by VOA's immigration reporter Aline Barros.
President Joe Biden's administration is stopping, with a few exceptions, the temporary relocation of Afghans to the United States and focusing on reuniting immediate family members with pathways to permanent residency, according to a senior administration official, The Associated Press reports.
Amid the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, tens of thousands of Afghans who worked alongside the military made desperate attempts to flee. For those able to leave, the difficult journey to permanent resettlement was just beginning. VOA Midwest Correspondent Kane Farabaugh goes inside the efforts of former U.S. troops to get their Afghan interpreters safely out of the country and to the United States, on .
Human Rights Watch issued a report Thursday documenting the forcible transfer of Ukrainian citizens to Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, which HRW says constitutes war crimes and potential crimes against humanity. The 71-page report, , includes interviews with 18 people who went to Russia — 15 from the Mariupol area, one from Donetsk and two from the Kharkiv region. It said Russian and Russian-affiliated authorities also subjected thousands of Ukrainians to a form of compulsory, punitive and abusive security screening called filtration.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, says there were 64,000 cases of persons reported as having disappeared across Africa in the past year — nearly one-third more than the previous year. The ICRC says armed conflict is to blame for most of the disappearances, and Nigeria alone accounts for more than 25,000 missing people, including nearly 14,000 children, the highest in Africa. Officials said more than half of the missing persons were minors when they vanished, and that disappearances were mainly from armed conflicts, disasters, and risky migration via the desert and Mediterranean Sea. Timothy Obiezu reports for VOA from Nigeria.
Campaigners are urging Australia to allow in more migrants and refugees to help address chronic labor shortages. The recently elected Labor government hosted a two-day jobs and skills summit Thursday and Friday. Australian industries, from hospitality to retail, say there are not enough workers to fill job openings. Phil Mercer reports for VOA from Australia.
-- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services beginning with pending applications. The U.S. immigration agency started mailing interview notices to petitioners with instructions for interviews. And the first round of interviews began Aug. 18, at the U.S. embassy in Havana.