NAIROBI: A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said on Wednesday.
The Kenyan officers were on their way Tuesday to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” according to the mission’s statement, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer.
Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media.
Gang violence has left more than one million people homeless in the Caribbean country in recent years, according to the UN, with many crowding into makeshift and unsanitary shelters after gunmen razed their homes.
The Kenya-led force was launched last year and tasked with fighting gangs trying to seize full control of Haiti’s capital. Kenya had promised to send 1,000 officers to Haiti. Since June, 800 have been deployed.
Another Kenyan officer who was shot and killed by the gangs in Haiti in February was buried in Kenya last week. Opposition leaders in the east African country called for the mission’s officers to be better equipped.
The mission has been struggling with a lack of personnel as gangs that control 85 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, keep seizing more territory. The force’s funding has also been dealt a blow after the US, its biggest backer, froze some of its funding, part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign assistance.
Kenyan UN peacekeeper missing in Haiti following gang attack
https://arab.news/nczj4
Kenyan UN peacekeeper missing in Haiti following gang attack
- Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed
- Gang violence has left more than one million people homeless in the Caribbean country
Asylum applications drop to 40-year low in Sweden
- Asylum seekers and their family members accounted for just 6 percent of the total, compared with 31 percent in 2018, when total immigration was 133,000
STOCKHOLM: The number of people applying for asylum in Sweden dropped by 30 percent in 2025 to the lowest level since 1985, with the right-of-center government saying it planned to further tighten rules this year ahead of an election in September.
The ruling minority coalition, which is supported by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, has made cutting the number of asylum seekers a key policy platform since taking power in 2022. It blames a surge in gang crime on decades of loose asylum laws and failed integration measures under previous Social Democrat-led governments.
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The Swedish government has cracked down on asylum seekers, made it more difficult to gain residency and citizenship, and introduced financial incentives for immigrants to leave the country.
“The change is not just about numbers in terms of lower immigration, it’s also about the way that’s made up, who is coming to Sweden with the proportion from asylum at a record low,” said Immigration Minister Johan Forssell.
The number of immigrants, excluding refugees from Ukraine, fell to 79,684 last year from 82,857 in 2024, according to figures from the Migration Board.
Asylum seekers and their family members accounted for just 6 percent of the total, compared with 31 percent in 2018, when total immigration was 133,000.
The number of people either voluntarily returning to another country or being expelled by authorities was also up.
“This is an area which is a high priority for us,” Forssell said.
The government has cracked down on asylum seekers, made it more difficult to gain residency and citizenship, and introduced financial incentives for immigrants to leave the country since it came to power.
Forssell said the government planned to further tighten regulations in the coming year, including a new law to increase the number of returnees and stricter citizenship rules, among other measures.
Swedes will vote in what is expected to be a tight general election in September.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s strict immigration policies drove asylum admissions to a historic low in 2025, with 839 requests granted by the end of November, the government said.
“It is absolutely critical that as few foreigners as possible come to Denmark and obtain asylum. My main priority is to limit the influx of refugees,” said Immigration Minister Rasmus Stoklund in a press release.
According to the ministry, “there have been very few years when the annual total remained below 1,000 ... 2025 will be a year with a historically low number of residence permits granted on asylum grounds.”
Denmark registered 1,835 asylum requests by November 2025.
The country’s immigration approach has been influenced by far-right parties for more than 20 years, and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, leader of the Social Democrats, has pursued a “zero refugee” policy since taking office in 2019.
Copenhagen has, over the years, implemented a slew of initiatives to discourage migrants and make Danish citizenship harder to obtain.
In 2024, the country of 6 million people accepted some 860 of the 2,333 asylum requests lodged that year.
