now on bbc news, on the banks of the parana river in the south of paraguay lies a group of towns known as colonias unidas — or united colonies. these german settlements were first established more than 100 years ago by a handful of immigrant families wanting to farm the land. since then there's been a steady stream of new settlers, untiljune 2021 that is — when suddenly — the numbers began to spike — but why? bbc mundo�*s mar michel travelled to the south american country. on the banks of the parana river, built among some of paraguay�*s most fertile land, hohenau, obligado and bella vista, or the united colonies. these german settlements were first established more than 100 years ago by immigrants wanting to farm the land.

recently, paraguay has seen a new wave of german immigration. babbles yes, we have a problem in germany, but it is not so easy to talk about this problem. but that's not all. we've been told that in the last four weeks, at least 1,200 people have entered the country illegally. so can that be true? are german immigrants really breaking into paraguay? and if so, why?

it's one of the oldest cities in south america. asuncion, the capital of a nation built on immigration. paraguay lost half its population during the triple alliance war of 1864, fighting against brazil, uruguay and argentina, and opened its doors to immigrants from all over the world as it tried to repair. in the early 1900s, almost 400km south of the capital, a handful of german families, led by a man named wilhelm closs, began to build the united colonies, and thousands more would follow. germans escaping nazis during the second world war fled to the united colonies, and ironically, nazis themselves fleeing justice back home would find

sanctuary here too. since then, there's been a steady stream of immigration — untiljune 2021, when suddenly the numbers began to accelerate. so i made the six—hourjourney from asuncion to the colonies to meet some of the new arrivals. "fuhl dich wie zu hause." it means, "feel like you are at home." and for thousands of germans who have arrived here in recent months, this really is home now. amongst them, the hausens — two—year—old ella, her mum teresa, and dad stephan. they moved to paraguay in novemberfrom nuremberg. but why? laughs

like so many others, for the hausens, it was the covid—19 pandemic which pushed them to leave germany.

corona might well have been the final straw for this family, but there was another reason they decided to move. we'll come back to them later. michael schwartz is another new arrival — an architect from stuttgart. he dreamt of building his own german community here in hohenau. but when nobody would move with him, he decided to pack up and come alone. many people tell about vaccination, but this is not the main thing for me. i want to have blue sky. not so much clouds, cloudy, and not so much rain. and i want warm weather and i want to do many things outside.

and, of course, tax. 0k. taxes. taxes is a big problem in germany. many people say in germany, we have the most taxes in the world, but the money is not put in for the people who live in germany long time. corona changed many things. 0k. over one million people lost their companies. so the pandemic, the situation with the pandemic played a role in your decision to come to... but the methods are the problem, not the pandemic or corona is not the problem, because what they do is wrong. they destroy the infrastructure. and what about the vaccination rules? what do you think? yeah. vaccination is now a big, big problem, that you don't, um, allow to criticise this. are you vaccinated? no, no. no.

i don't do it because there are many questions with this vaccination. many doubts. doubts. do you think you can live here without vaccination? yes. yes, yes. but there is a campaign. it's not so that all paraguay find it good, this vaccination. many paraguayans say no. well, but vaccines save millions of lives. when you see the figures and you compare with the old vaccination, for other, er... it is much, much, much more people have problems with this vaccination. and then, you know, from the man who create this test, that the test is not...able... ..to show infection. this is fact. but this is incorrect. pcr tests do accurately diagnose corona, and that's not

the only misconception we have discovered among the newcomers. covid measures here are actually quite strict. vaccine certificates and pcrs are carefully checked. you can find hand—washing stations like this outside virtually every public place, and masks are commonplace. but the fear among the locals is that some of the new arrivals don't feel that these rules apply to them. it's a big worry, especially as paraguay had the highest number of covid deaths per capita anywhere in the world when this new spike of immigration began.

the country is running a national campaign to inoculate the population, so unvaccinated immigrants are a worry for the mayor.

and then the mayor says something that confuses me. in january this year, paraguay made it mandatory for all non—residents entering the country to be vaccinated. since then, message boards have been filled with ways to get around the rules. michael and the hausens arrived legally and through the airport. but since the rules changed, we're told german citizens have been breaking into the country illegally through its porous borders.

"juan", not his real name, is a government official. he's risking his job to speak to us, because he's angry. he says paraguay had to change the rules because of the immigrants. but they are still entering without that certificate. how is that happening?

paraguay is surrounded by bolivia, argentina and brazil. with limited resources, policing the perimeter is not easy. juan says this means illegal immigrants are easily able to enter the country and bypass the covid checks. he says corrupt officials then legitimise their paperwork. the bbc cannot independently verinyuan�*s figures. estimates we've received differ hugely. in response tojuan�*s allegations, the government told us...

they added... untranslated conversation noemi jara works in the tourism office. she's in the business of welcoming people, but she's worried that double standards have become the norm. noemi goes farther. she says she often feels

belittled by the new arrivals. but that isn't the end of this story. it is notjust the pandemic driving this new wave of immigration. newsreader: angela merkel is absolutely putting on the - pressure, and has been doing sow _ since 2015, around 1.5 million migrants, many of whom had fled

war in afghanistan, iraq and syria, have entered germany in response to former chancellor angela merkel�*s open door policy. but the strategy has led to tensions at home, and some say fuelled a rise in the far right. stephan and teresa say the main reason they emigrated to paraguay was to protect their daughter from the "influences" of islam.

what's the difference between muslims arriving in germany and you europeans arriving in this country?

stephan says he's been warmly welcomed in paraguay. i asked him why the same welcome couldn't be extended to immigrants in germany.

the husband's position is not unique. in fact, every german immigrant we spoke to during our visit cited muslims in germany as one of the main reasons they left the country. "hana", not her real name, left her home in germany four years ago. we worked very hard. a0 years long.

now she helps germans settle in paraguay. she refuses to show her face on camera, because she says she is sick of bad press campaigns. but they are protecting their children from what, exactly? but that is a strong accusation. do you have, or do they have any evidence of that? what would you say to people

who think that argument is racist, that you are being racist? i pointed out to hana that the new immigrants who are breaking into paraguay in order to flout the country's covid rules are not being respectful. hana herself is not vaccinated, and tested positive

for covid—19 later that day. coughs but this is not... this is not a campaign. this is what is happening. there are some people from germany who are entering illegally the country, because they don't have the vaccine certificate. no, no, of course not all of them. but this is a... this is a illegal thing.

of course, those sort of things are legal things and they have the right to do that, to start a new life in a new country. but since january. .. ..for enter paraguay, you have to show your vaccine certificate, and these people are entering through all the borders to escape that control. that is illegal. betweenjune 2021 and march 2022, just over 1,300 new residence permits were issued to german immigrants, but the true number of new settlers is thought to be much higher. the exact number of illegal immigrants remains unknown. paraguay has a long history

of welcoming migrants from all over the world. it's a part of the fabric of society. they are proud to be open and inclusive, and they say that while this new wave of immigration is welcome, any kind of prejudice is not. it's just un—paraguayan. hello, there. most of the weekend we've had fine, sunny skies for the majority, but not all parts of the uk. we had temperatures of about 19

degrees on sunday in bournemouth, in dorset, and next door, in poole, kite surfers were enjoying those brisk north—easterly winds. now, it has been a dry month, particularly for england and wales, with less than half the april average rainfall. not much in the forecast, either. scotland's already had about average rainfall, and northern ireland's been between, really, with three quarters of a month's worth of rain, so it's been a bit drier than normal. across the north—east of scotland we had some thicker cloud on sunday. as that came in, temperatures just limited to about 7 degrees celsius, and i'm telling you about that because that cloud is likely to be there still across parts of northern scotland into monday morning. with that, a bit of drizzle, maybe a few mist patches, as well. otherwise, a sunny start to the day, but through the afternoon we will see cloud tending to bubble up, bringing a scattering of showers, and, again, with the wind is coming in off the north sea, it is these eastern areas that will have the slightly lower temperatures. 10—14 degrees. now, some of the showers, come the afternoon, could turn out to be fairly heavy across south—eastern england,

with the risk of a bit of hail mixed in, but it is across the south that we will see those highest temperatures. 16, maybe 17 for the south of wales and south—west england. now, into monday night time, you can see the extent of the dry weather. we are going to see cloud, though, again, moving into northern areas of scotland, perhaps thick enough to give us a few patches of light rain or drizzle. temperatures like they've been over recent nights, really. around 3—7 degrees celsius. now, tuesday we are going to see cloud pushed southwards into the north sea, and then tend to move across inland areas. so, after a sunny start, it turns progressively cloudier. the air is a little bit colder, as well, so you will notice is temperatures just go down a little bit further for east scotland, eastern england. 9 in aberdeen and newcastle, 11 for norwich, but still some warmth. 16 and 17 across parts of the south and west. wednesday's a very similar looking weather picture. again, we've got the winds coming in from a north—north—easterly direction. a lot of cloud building across most areas. the best of any limited sunshine likely across sheltered western areas.

those temperatures still ranging from around nine to perhapsjust 1a further southwards, so, the trend is for it to turn cloudier and a bit cooler, as well. that trend is notjust that through wednesday. we will also see similar conditions through thursday and friday, as well. but then probably some changes into the following weekend. now, let's take a look at the jet stream pattern. over recent days we've seen this ridge to the north of the uk. that's what's been building the area of high pressure to our nose, bringing us fine weather with the winds coming in from the north—east, but if i run through the jet stream over the next week or so, the biggest change will notice is that the main area of ridging starts to build across the greenland area just here. pressure will be rising down to the rest of the uk, what that will bring us as north or even north—westerly winds as we head into the early part of may and we will probably see an

area of low pressure, so next weekend we may well see rain or showers pushing their way southwards, north—westerly winds follow, then starts to turn out a bit cooler from the north, and follow, then starts to turn out a bit coolerfrom the north, and it might well be cold enough for a little bit of snow to return in some of the showers across northern hills in scotland, as well. so, that will be something we will be firming up in the next few days, but the main message even today might make the most of the sunshine whilst it lasts.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. our top stories: polls are closing in some areas in france for the final round of the country's presidential election. incumbent emmanuel macron is hoping for a second term in office. his challenger, the far—right marine le pen, seeks to replace him. we have a special programme in half an hour. as russia's war on ukraine enters its third month, us secretary of state antony blinken is expected in kyiv, the first top us offical to visit since the invasion. japan says ten people have died off the northern island of hokkaido after a sightseeing boat went missing on saturday.