Zimbabwean wins asylum appeal

The government’s policy on deportation to Zimbabwe has been thrown into doubt, after a failed asylum seeker from the country won his appeal.

The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled that the man, who cannot be named, would be at risk of harm if he was returned to President Robert Mugabe’s regime in the southern African state.

Tribunal chairman Mark Ockelton said that the man had a “well-founded fear of persecution” if he was returned to Zimbabwe.

However, Mr Ockelton said that the man had been “fraudulent” and “deliberately dishonest” in his dealings with the British authorities, but said that the fact that he had now spent so much time in Britain would put him at risk if he returned to Zimbabwe.

The decision is expected to force the government to rethink its policy on deportation to Zimbabwe.

The Home Office’s research into conditions for returning deportees to Zimbabwe was also criticised by the tribunal, as was a government ‘fact-finding’ mission in September, which it said produced a “lack of evidence”.

A ban on deportations to Zimbabwe was lifted last November, after being in place for two years. It was reported that a number of Zimbabwean asylum seekers had gone on hunger strike at a number of immigration centres in the UK earlier this year, in protest at possible deportation.

Campaigners against the deportation had warned that people deported from the UK were regarded as “spies” and “traitors” by President Mugabe’s regime.

The Refugee Council welcomed the decision and said that the government should not resume the return of failed asylum-seekers to Zimbabwe unless the situation “significantly improved”.

Maeve Sherlock, Chief Executive, said the ruling was “sensible and humane”. She said: “The ruling backs up what the Refugee Council has said all along - the government has failed to recognise the real dangers faced by people forced to return to that country. There has been plenty of evidence that they are subject to further abuse on their return because they are regarded as traitors by the Mugabe regime. Even if someone is not accepted by our government as being a refugee, we must not send them back into the sort of danger they would face in Zimbabwe."

“Ministers will have to look very seriously at the judges’ frankly scathing comments about how the government monitors the safety of people returned to Zimbabwe. We hope also that the government will understand that the dangers faced by people being forcibly returned to Zimbabwe are also faced by those removed to other countries with vicious regimes and unstable governments - and we call on them to always put the safety of people above beating targets for removals.”

Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesperson Mark Oaten also urged the government to rethink their policy. He said: "This is a highly significant ruling and shows the Government were too quick to reinstate Zimbabwe as a safe country.”

(KMcA/SP)