Zimbabwean hunger strikers 'exhausted but determined'

Zimbabwean hunger strikers 'exhausted but determined'

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By Staff Reporter

FIVE Zimbabwean women who went on hunger strike at a British Immigration Removal Centre last Monday have complained of exhaustion, but remain determined to continue their action, they said Thursday.

The five failed asylum seekers -- Maud Kadango Lennard, Faina Manuel Pondesi, Zandile Sibanda, Rose Phekani and Pauline Chitekeshe – are held at the Yarls Wood holding facility in Bedford.

Three of the women have been told they could be deported to Malawi within days.

“I have been told I will be deported on September 19, together with two of the girls,” Lennard said by telephone Thursday. “We are determined to press on with our strike because the UK is deporting us to a foreign country with the full knowledge that we will ultimately be handed over to Robert Mugabe’s security people.”

The women wrote to the British Home Office last Sunday giving notice of their intention to go on hunger strike, but they were told they had exhausted their appeals and now face removal from the UK.

Deportations to Zimbabwe are currently on hold, but the UK government says it will remove people who used “genuine” foreign passports to enter the UK before seeking to switch to their true identities.

In a letter to the UK immigration service, the women said: “Given the desperate situation in Zimbabwe which has been commented upon by the United Nations and all major countries including South Africa, we cannot condone the return of us (sic) to that country at this time.

“Please can you release us or hunger strike (sic).”

The Home Office, in its reply, told the women they “can be in no doubt that the Secretary of State does not accept your claims.”

The Home Office letter, signed by a D Smith, said: “The decisions to refuse you asylum have all been upheld by the AIT (Asylum and Immigration Tribunal) at every stage of the appeal process. You therefore have little incentive to respond to any terms of bail/temporary admission.

“With regards to your specific fears of the country situation in Zimbabwe, your concerns are noted and supported by objective evidence. The Home Office published policy means that removals of failed asylum seekers are not enforced to Zimbabwe and so I would like to allay your fears of being forcibly returned. However, as the Home Office plans to return you to Malawi…the country situation in Zimbabwe has no bearing on your situation.

“For above reasons, I find myself unable to grant you bail/temporary admission but would remind you that you can apply for AIT bail at any time.”

Hundreds of Zimbabweans put off by a UK visa regime in Harare have used foreign passports to enter the UK before claiming asylum. The UK courts have refused to accept them as legitimate Zimbabweans, lawyers have complained.

Many have been deported to Malawi and South Africa where they face lengthy questioning and threatened with criminal charges, The New Zimbabwe’s immigration expert Lloyd Msipa said this week.

Msipa revealed: “The tragedy with this situation is that once these Zimbabweans are deported, they are forgotten. It’s like putting people on a conveyer belt to nowhere.

“Nobody wants to touch these cases with a long stick because legal aid is no longer available to most of them, and the cases are notoriously difficult to win. I have seen people who have produced birth and death certificates of their parents, letters from headmen and many other forms of identification to invalidate their false passports, but they all suffer the same fate.

Campaigners said the UK had no systems in place to follow-up the deportees to ensure they are safe.
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