UK detains Zimbabwean asylum seekers

UK detains Zimbabwean asylum seekers

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By Staff Reporter

BRITAIN this week began detaining Zimbabwean asylum seekers after an Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) ruled it was safe to send failed asylum seekers to the Southern African country.

Lawyers and Zimbabwean activists confirmed the fresh detention of failed asylum seekers and were actively seeking a meeting with the Immigration Minister to urge the UK government to make a political intervention.

Harris Nyatsanza, a Zimbabwean activist said they wanted the British government to go back to the pre-2004 period when all deportations to Zimbabwe were frozen.

"We are going to impress upon the minister that most Zimbabwean asylum seekers have been honest and continue to report monthly at police stations across the country.

"If they start detaining people going to register their presence, many will stop doing so and go underground. This has the effect of criminalising Zimbabwean asylum seekers."

The opposition Conservative Party has also urged "restraint" and "better analysis of the situation in Zimbabwe" on the part of the UK government. Although the Tories have tough immigration policies, they have previously proved to have a weak spot for Zimbabwean asylum seekers. Right wing newspapers, notably The Daily Mail, have also openly backed Zimbabwean asylum seekers.

Nyatsanza said: "What we are asking the UK government do do is to make a careful assessment of the situation in Zimbabwe. We fully appreciate the AIT judgment, but we also think the situation in Zimbabwe is changing soon and the UK government can, if they wanted, stop deportations until such a period."

At least two failed asylum seekers were detained Friday and taken to Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre, awaiting deportation. In both cases, they were making their monthly report to police stations. Before the Tuesday ruling, there were 14 Zimbabwean prisoners who were in detention centres.

A Zimbabwean lawyer dealing with the cases said: "It's a hopeless situation. Their only salvation from deportation would be to prove that their circumstances have changed since they claimed asylum.

"Some of them have gone into political activism in the UK and engaged in activities that may be viewed as against the interests of the Zimbabwe government which puts them at risk. A challenge can be mounted on those grounds."

Nyatsanza said they were not aware of cases of Zimbabweans who had been deported since the ruling on Tuesday.

He said: "Our understanding is that the deportations will resume towards the end of the month."

He said they were also engaging the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to see if its programme of paying £3 000 to volunteer returnees could be extended (read more).

He said: "There are obviously some who would rather return voluntarily so that their passports are not blacklisted. The IOM could assist these people so that they return in their own time and with dignity."

Although the AIT said there was no "automatic risk" of danger for returned asylum seekers, refugee groups in the UK insist that President Robert Mugabe's security forces will likely hunt them down. One of Mugabe's ministers described asylum seekers as "agents of regime change" in 2004.

The Zimbabwe government, for its part, insists that the country has always been safe but Britain wanted to apply political pressure by claiming that the government was committing human rights violations. Ministers say they will assist those who are deported.
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