Zimbabwe asylum hunger strikers press on

Zimbabwe asylum hunger strikers press on

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By Staff Reporter

A HUNGER-STRIKING asylum seeker at Yarl's Wood in Bedford has said she would rather die of starvation than be returned to her native Zimbabwe.

Thando Mpofu, 28, has refused food for 12 days, along with five other refugees at the immigration removal centre.

British authorities say they are not Zimbabweans because they used South African and Malawian passports to travel to the UK. The asylum seekers, however, say that was the only route open for them to get into the UK.

Mpofu said the all-women group faced torture or even death at the hands of government agents if they are forced home.

She said: "This strike is the only thing we can do. It's better to die than to go back and be detained.

"I can't go back there because I am a lesbian and I am not allowed there by the government – they call us 'pigs' and 'dogs' – and those with political cases can't go back because they would be imprisoned and tortured or killed.

"I have proved I am from Zimbabwe, but I am still being held here when I should be released."

Mpofu, who has been at Yarl's Wood for nearly six months, said she had fled Zimbabwe for South Africa after she was beaten by relatives because of her sexuality.

She bought a fake South African passport and travelled to Britain in 2003, settling in Leeds while her asylum application was processed.

But she claimed it had taken until Tuesday this week for her to be allowed an interview at the South African Embassy to prove her true nationality.

And she said she still feared deportation to Zimbabwe, even though other detainees from her country are being released during a freeze on repatriations.

Mpofu said: "They are saying they will get back to my case, but I should be released just as others are."

Another hunger striker, who asked not to be named, said she had only avoided arrest after a friendly member of Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation had allowed her to escape.

She said: "They will kill me straightaway if I am deported. I am weak now and just surviving on water."

Anne Neale, spokesman for Legal Action For Women, said: "From our point of view, these women are being detained for such long periods when detention is only meant for exceptional circumstances."

Most Zimbabwean asylum seekers have been released from detention following an Immigration Tribunal hearing which ruled that it was not safe to return failed asylum seekers to the Southern African country.
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