Blair slams door on Zimbabwe asylum seekers

Blair slams door on Zimbabwe asylum seekers

• UK ministers revolt over Zim asylum seekers

• Wedding stings that ends with one way ticket to Zim

• Zim asylum seekers go on hunger strike

• Double tragedy for UK asylum deportee

• A 'Gestapo' welcome for Zimbabwe's UK deportees

By Mduduzi Mathuthu

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair has rejected growing calls to halt forced removals of Zimbabwean asylum seekers, telling campaigners: "We are not open for business."

Blair survived a week of relentless criticism from human rights campaigners, MPs and the media all urging Britain not to deport hundreds of failed asylum seekers back to Zimbabwe. Rights groups say asylum seekers face torture in Zimbabwe, with claims that some deportees had been tortured or simply disappeared.

Braving a stream of attacks on his government's policy, Blair came out fighting on Monday. He said allowing Zimbabweans to stay while deporting other nationalities would be granting special treatment, and would open the system to abuse.

"It would send out the impression that Britain is open for business," said Blair.

On Monday, Blair came under heavy attack from a leading British newspaper known for its anti-asylum and immigration stance. The Daily Mail which sells two million copies daily, ran a front page headline saying: For Pity's Sake Let Them Stay.

The paper dedicated four pages to Zimbabwean asylum seekers, accusing the government of "wretched pretence" over the Home Office's analysis of the situation in Zimbabwe.

"What makes matters worse is the wretched pretence by the Home Office that these people will be in no real danger if they are sent home. It is positively surreal. What planet are Ministers on?" the Mail said in an editorial comment.

It added: "Mugabe's regime is an evil that this government -- supposedly so moral, so egalitarian, so high-minded -- prefers not to confront. Having gone to war in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, it not only fails to lift an effective finger against Mugabe but shamefully intends to deliver his asylum seeking opponents into his clutches. Britain will be sadly diminished if these deportations to Zimbabwe aren't stopped."

The Mail also wrapped in its powerful columnist Melanie Phillips, a writer who has previously formed common front with her paper to attack asylum seekers.

"This is wholly unacceptable," she wrote in her column. "It means sending people back indiscriminately into Mugabe's terror, regardless of whether or not they are genuine refugees, merely to stop more from coming. The government was quick to intervene to end tyranny in Bosnia. What about making Zimbabwe's tyranny history?"

Home Office officials said 95 Zimbabweans had been deported in the first three months of 2005.
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