The United Kingdom has imposed visa restrictions on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, accusing its government of failing to cooperate with its new policy on the return of undocumented migrants and those who commit criminal offences.

The UK Home Office announced the measures in a statement late on Saturday. It also said that Angola and Namibia have agreed to step up efforts to take back their citizens.

The agreements mark the first major change under sweeping reforms unveiled by Secretary of State for the Home Department Shabana Mahmood last month to make refugee status temporary and speed up the deportation of those who arrive without documents in the UK.

There was no immediate comment from the DRC, Angola or Namibia.

The Home Office said the DRC failed to meet the UK’s requirements for cooperation and has now been stripped of fast-track visa services and preferential treatment for VIPs and decision makers.

Mahmood said the UK could escalate measures to a complete halt of visas for the DRC unless cooperation rapidly improves.

“We expect countries to play by the rules. If one of their citizens has no right to be here, they must take them back,” she said.

“I thank Angola and Namibia and welcome their co-operation. Now is the time for the Democratic Republic of Congo to do the right thing. Take your citizens back or lose the privilege of entering our country.

“This is just the start of the measures I am taking to secure our border and ramp up the removal of those with no right to be here,” she added.

Prime Minister Keir Streamer’s centre-left government unveiled sweeping changes to the UK’s asylum system last month, including drastically cutting protections for refugees and their children, as part of a bid to stem the arrivals of irregular migrants that have fuelled rising anger on the far-right.

More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived in the UK on small boats this year, more than for the whole of 2024 but lower than the record set in 2022, when the Conservatives were in power.

Mahmood told lawmakers that the reforms, modelled on Denmark’s strict asylum system, would discourage refugees and asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel from France on small boats.

She described the current system as “out of control and unfair”, adding that it was an “uncomfortable truth” that the government must face.

Under the reforms, refugee status will become temporary and will be reviewed every 30 months. Refugees will be forced to return to their home countries once those are deemed safe.

They will also need to wait for 20 years, instead of the current five, before they can apply for permanent residency.

The government has also said it will legislate to make it harder for irregular migrants and foreign criminals to use the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to stop deportation.

Since July last year, the UK has “removed more than 50,000 people with no right to remain”, a 23 percent increase on the previous period, and instructed diplomats to make returns a top priority, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Yvette Cooper said.

The policy has been facing criticism, however, with Mark Davies, a former adviser to the Foreign Office, calling it “shameful” and a departure from “Britain’s historic commitment to support refugees”.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also described the policy as “draconian”, adding that it tries to “appease the most ghastly, racist right-wing forces all across Europe”, while undermining the UN Convention on Human Rights.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, urged the government to reconsider, warning the plans “will not deter” crossings, and that refugees who work hard should be able to build “secure, settled lives”.

Official figures cited by the AFP news agency showed that asylum claims in the UK are at a record high, with about 111,000 applications made in the year to June 2025.

But the number of initial positive decisions the UK authorities granted fell from 2023 to 2024.

Most asylum seekers and refugees arrive in the UK legally. Net migration reached a record high of 906,000 in the year to June 2023, before it fell to 431,000 in 2024, partly reflecting the tighter rules.

Four hikers who went missing on Christmas Day have been found dead after being buried by an avalanche in the Vardousia Mountains in central Greece.

The bodies of three men and a woman were found on Friday evening after a large-scale search in the mountainous region of Fokida, according to Greek state broadcaster ERT.

Fire authorities located the bodies partially covered by snow on a steep and inaccessible slope near the summit of Korakas peak, at an altitude of about 2,000m (6,561ft). Rescue officials said the group was swept away by an avalanche.

Authorities said the hikers had begun their ascent in favourable weather, but conditions quickly worsened due to the altitude and the area’s terrain.

Vasilis Vathrakogiannis, a spokesperson for the Hellenic Fire Service, told the BBC the alarm was raised by a friend of the three men after they failed to return at the expected time.

“Weather conditions were extremely difficult, with low temperatures and poor visibility,” he said, adding this made it hard for both drones and a helicopter to detect anything.

He said a fire service ground team later found the bodies of the three men and a woman, who was confirmed to be a friend of one of them and had not been expected to take part in the climb.

Recovery efforts were under way on Saturday, in what officials described as an extremely challenging operation.

One of the bodies was successfully airlifted by helicopter. Efforts continue to move the remaining three to a nearby plateau so they can be recovered using a winch.

Haris Asariotakis, head of the Hellenic Rescue Team mission at the scene, said the location was particularly difficult.

“It is about three hours from the village of Athanasios Diakos, at an altitude of 2,000m,” he said. “If the helicopter is unable to reach the area, we will descend on foot together with firefighters and mountain guides.”

Additional reporting by Kostas Koukoumakas

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza, surrounded by tents and debris, are suffering through more winter rains after two years of Israeli bombardment destroyed much of the Strip.

A polar low-pressure system accompanied by heavy rain and strong winds swept across the Gaza Strip on Saturday. It is the third polar low to affect the Palestinian territory this winter, with a fourth low-pressure system forecast to hit the area starting on Monday, meteorologist Laith al-Allami told the Anadolu news agency.

Many families have been living in tents since late 2023, for most of the duration of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

The enclave is imminently facing freezing temperatures, rain and strong winds, as the authorities warn the downpour could intensify into a full-blown storm.

Mohammed Maslah, a displaced Palestinian now in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera in his rugged tent that he did not have a choice but to stay there.

“I could not find anywhere to live in Gaza, except Gaza Port,” he told Al Jazeera. “I’m forced to stay here because my home is under Israeli control. After just a few hours of rain, we were soaked.”

In Deir al-Balah, Shaima Wadi, a mother of four children who was displaced from Jabaliya in the north, spoke to the Associated Press. “We have been living in this tent for two years. Every time it rains and the tent collapses over our heads, we try to put up new pieces of wood,” she said. “With how expensive everything has become, and without any income, we can barely afford clothes for our children or mattresses for them to sleep on.”

The heavy rains earlier this month flooded tents and makeshift shelters across Gaza, where most of the buildings have been destroyed or damaged by Israeli attacks.

So far in December, at least 15 people, including three babies, died from hypothermia following rains and plunging temperatures, with several buildings collapsing, according to the authorities in Gaza. Aid organisations have called for Israel to allow more shelters and other humanitarian aid into the territory.

Ibrahim Abu al-Reesh, head of field operations for the Civil Defence in the Gaza Port area, said that his teams responded to various distress calls as weather conditions got harsher in places where displaced people set up fragile tents.

“We worked hard to cover some of these damaged tents with plastic sheets after they were flooded by rainwater,” he told Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Al Khalili, reporting from Gaza City, said that winter has been adding to the suffering of tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians who do not have safe shelters.

“The same misery repeats as each rain fills neighbourhoods with muddy water,” he said.

Ceasefire talks

As Palestinians face dire conditions in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington, DC, in the coming days while negotiators and others discuss the second stage of the ceasefire that took effect on October 10.

The progress in the peace process has been slow. Challenges in phase two of the ceasefire include the deployment of an international stabilisation force, a technocratic governing body for Gaza, the proposed disarmament of Hamas and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.

So far, the agreement has partially held despite Israel’s repeated violations.

Since the ceasefire went into effect, more than 414 Palestinians have been killed and 1,142 wounded, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

It also said the bodies of 679 people were pulled from the rubble during the same period, as the truce makes it safer to search for the remains of people killed earlier.

The ministry on Saturday said that 29 bodies, including 25 recovered from under the rubble, had been brought to local hospitals over the past 48 hours.

The overall Palestinian death toll from Israel’s war has risen to at least 71,266, the ministry said, and another 171,219 have been wounded.

Italian police have arrested nine people accused of raising around €7m (£6m) for Hamas over more than two years.

The money was ostensibly collected as humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians, a police statement said, but was instead sent to the militant group via a “complex fundraising system”.

Alongside the arrests, police say they have seized more than €8m (£7m) in assets as part of the investigation.

Police say the suspects are “specifically accused of carrying out financing operations believed to have contributed to terrorist activities”.

The arrests were made as part of a joint initiative between Italy’s counter-terror police and financial police.

The investigation began after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack in southern Israel.

Police say they analysed “a series of reports of suspicious financial transactions” involving some of the suspects in the lead up to the attack.

Investigators uncovered a “complex” system of fundraising, which was headquartered in Genoa with branches in Milan, the statement adds.

“The suspects collected donations intended for the civilian population of Gaza, however, it emerged that over 71% of these funds were diverted to Hamas’s coffers to finance its military wing and support the families of suicide bombers or those detained for terrorism,” the police statement says.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the most well-known of the arrested suspects was Mohammad Hannoun, the president of the Palestinian Association in Italy.

Mr Hannoun has previously described allegations he is a financier of Hamas as a “lie”.

Piantedosi thanked police for their work in a post on X, but also noted that “the presumption of innocence… must always be recognised at this stage”.