Alison Dellit
Zimbabwean asylum seekers have entered their third week of hunger strike, as their campaign to stop the Home Office deporting them gathers momentum. The British government resumed deporting failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe in November, and deported 95 in the next three months, despite the Foreign Office recently escalating its verbal attacks on the regime led by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. At least 35 of the 105 Zimbabweans imprisoned while awaiting deportation are still hunger striking.
While the Home Office claims that it has no records of any of the deported Zimbabweans facing persecution, it was recently forced to concede that it did not keep track of the deportees. Refugee groups claim that they have had numerous reports of asylum seekers being detained upon arrival in Harare.
On July 6, High Court judge Justice Collins ruled that the Refugee Legal Council should have a chance to challenge the deportation ruling before the court, and urged the Home Office to delay all deportations to Zimbabwe until the August 6 hearing. On the same day, senior Zimbabwean opposition politician Crispin Kulinji was granted bail while he appeals his imminent deportation to Malawi, a tiny country close to Zimbabwe. Kulinji was denied asylum because he came to Britain on a Malawi passport.
On June 30, immigration officials contacted Welsh soccer club Merthyr to inform them that they could not let Oswald Sibanda, a failed Zimbabwean asylum seeker who was tortured by the regime, play. Sibanda played for a top Zimbabwean team, but is prevented from doing work — paid or unpaid — because his application was rejected. The Home Office has confirmed that playing football is considered unpaid work. "Football is my life", a disappointed Sibanda told the local paper.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, July 13, 2005.
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