Zimbabwean hunger strikers in UK hospital

Zimbabwean hunger strikers in UK hospital

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By Staff Reporter

TWO of the six Zimbabwean hunger strikers at Yarls Wood have been taken to Bedford Hospital after refusing meals for a month.

Thando Mpofu, 28, and Amanda Sibiya, 21, were admitted on Monday.

They are protesting against threatened deportation from the detention centre near Clapham.

A doctor's report said that the women were at high risk of suffering from a mild form of brain damage – or Wernicke's encephalopathy – unless re-feeding was carried out at hospital.

Four other women refugees are still reported to be refusing meals at Yarls Wood.

Mpofu claimed at the beginning of their strike that they faced torture or death at the hands of the Zimbabwean government if they were forced home.

They had fled to South Africa to escape political persecution and torture in Zimbabwe, they said.

But some of them suffered further persecution at the notorious Lindela repatriation camp in South Africa, they said.

The women are waiting for solicitors to represent their case to stay in Britain the Home Office.

Noble Sibanda, a spokesman for the striking asylum seekers said: "They have put up a determined fight. The Home Office must now do the honourable thing and release these asylum seekers who have already suffered immeasurably."

Niki Adams, a spokesman for Legal Action for Women (LAW) – which has been contacted by over 40 women at Yarl's Wood – said: "A shockingly high proportion of the women in Yarl's Wood face imminent removal yet have no lawyer to represent them.

"In many cases their asylum claims were refused without all the evidence of the rape and other torture they suffered being properly considered."

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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