Let's get real about asylum claims

Let's get real about asylum claims

• UK detains Zimbabwean asylum seekers

• COMMENT: Betrayed by Blair, they will simply go underground

• Full text of AIT judgment on deportations

• Britain can deport Zim asylum seekers

• The Home Office v Zim asylum seekers

• Asylum tribunal hears evidence from ex-CIO men

• UK asylum court battle set for July

• PART I..Tanya, cutting through a web of lies

• PART II..Tanya, cutting through a web of lies

• PART III..Tanya, cutting through a web of lies

• PART IV..Tanya, cutting through a web of lies

• Tanya seeks gag order to hide 'dark past'

Zim asylum seekers double after UK ruling

• UK minister loses job over sex-for-asylum scandal

• 'Sex for asylum' UK officer suspended

• 'I will help you,' he said. Then he asked for sex

• Mugabe in 'come home' plea to exiles

• Home Office wins key Zim asylum ruling

• Decision will impact on all Zim asylum seekers

• UK sham marriages law struck down

By Bekithemba Mhlanga

SOME twenty months ago, writing for this website, I argued that it was difficult if not impossible to mobilise Zimbabweans in the diaspora into foot soldiers.

My assertion was premised on that most of the people the diaspora had a faint or marginal conception of what the struggle in Zimbabwe was all about .

The conclusion was arrived at on the basis of who was in the diaspora and when they got there.

To re-cap , I argued that Zimbabweans resident in the diaspora were made up of three waves. The pioneers arrived in the late nineties and early 2000 on short term visitors' visas. This group sought to make a quick buck and return home (sithi hwabuhwabu siyephekela abantwana). This is particularly so in the United Kingdom.

The second wave, a small number, was made up of victimised individuals who were genuinely fleeing harrassement by Zanu PF operatives. These are the same numbers and people that you will find at vigils, political meetings and so called rallies. They are a a small minority.

The third group, is what the Home Office in the United Kingdom says makes up the 7 000 or so failed asylum seekers, in street language "fake" asylum seekers. In discussions with the latter group, a number of facts or trends quickly become discernible. This group of people did not arrive in the United Kingdom yesterday or last week but arrived some three or four years ago.

Fact number two is that during that time, they did not claim political asylum, did not meddle or participate in the political debate, but continued to pursue their own private opportunistic agendas. This is the same group that the Home Office has rightly designated their positions as late and opportunistic applications.

The third fact among this group is that most of their claims are premised on lies, deception and fraud. Most of them argue that the harassment they face is historical, dating back to the days when they were harangued by the Fifth Brigade (Gukurahundi) which in most cases is pure fiction.

In my earlier submission, I argued that these lies were being pushed by people who have no clue where Mbembesi is and have no idea what the original symbol of Zapu was in 1980. A sample of some of their asylum claims would show beyond any reasonable doubt that they have, however, pushed this idea of being the forever persecuted to its logical conclusion. They are the same individuals who have vilified people from Matabeleland for seeking asylum for the second time in the United Kingdom having done so in Zimbabwe for the first time I presume.

It is totally ludicrous for a former national soccer team player whose badge of political activism is Rufaro Stadium or Barbourfields Stadium insults rained by football fans. What basis do you make a claim based on a few pitch-side insults?

Anyone with a bit of common sense would have seen that the case of AA and AK had more holes in it than a fishing net. The time lag in the submission of the application, the circumstances in which the claims were made and the ridiculous assumption that anyone who files an asylum claim if sent to Zimbabwe would automatically face persecution was preposterous.

Yes Zimbabwe is a difficult neighbourhood to be in at the moment but that is not the same thing as automatically being unsafe. If indeed it was, Air Zimbabwe and British Airways would have plenty of seats available most of the time, but they do not. If it was unsafe, so-called asylum seekers would not be popping into Zimbabwe now and again by any means necessary. Lebanon is unsafe so is Gaza.

If anything, these so-called asylum seekers have become nothing but part of wider dodgy industry of money changers, bogus immigration advisors, crooks, thieves and hooligans.

It's amazing how far the level of naivety around this has risen. One media channel had the audacity to urge people to go out into the streets of England to protest against the Asylum Immigration Tribunal ruling on forced removal of Zimbabweans.

One more time, the majority of the political asylum seekers have never even thrown a stone at a policemen in anger before. Asking them to go out on a protest was pushing one's luck. Maybe if the urge was for them to think up of new lies and make a fresh asylum claim.

Individuals with a well founded fear of persecution still have the recourse to apply for political asylum – no change there.

Bekithemba Mhlanga is a Zimbabwean journalists based in London
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