IMMIGRATION officers were ordered last night to halt deportations to Zimbabwe despite Tony Blair’s insistence that there would be no official suspension of forced removals.
The Times has learnt that more than 100 failed asylum-seekers who claimed that they were at risk from President Mugabe’s regime will be allowed to stay in Britain until new appeals are examined.
Three claimants were deported in secret at the weekend despite mounting international pressure to stop the mass expulsions. Lawyers for the three say that they do not know what happened to them on their arrival in Harare.
Human rights groups and MPs will increase the pressure on the Government today when they present Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, with new evidence for all 114 detainees facing expulsion. Last night officials stopped the deportation of a young woman due to be flown back to Harare.
The woman, who has been sheltering in Britain for three years, was arrested a week ago. She was savagely beaten by Zimbabwean police after her father, a known opponent of Mr Mugabe’s regime, disappeared after being abducted from their home in 2002.
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The Home Secretary agreed in an emergency statement to the Commons yesterday to study any new evidence on behalf of detainees held at removal centres around Britain. However, human rights groups believe that the Government is trying to defuse the row over deportations until after it hosts the G8 summit next month. As hunger strikes by detainees entered their second week, Mr Clarke promised to examine each individual case, offering the Government the opportunity to stop deportations without changing its hardline policy on refusing to allow all Zimbabwean asylum-seekers to stay.
Lawyers for the detainees are expected to apply for them to be given bail this week.
The Prime Minister said at his monthly press conference that stopping the return of failed claimants could undermine the Government’s attempts to crack down on abuse of the asylum system. “The worry from our point of view as policymakers is that you will send a signal right across the system that Britain is again open to business on asylum claims that are not genuine.”
In a further concession to his critics Mr Clarke told the Commons that he was willing to meet a deputation from the United Nations, Amnesty International and the Refugee Council on how to deal with this crisis. In the 15 months to March this year, asylum or discretion to remain was granted to 270 Zimbabweans with “no substantiated reports of mistreatment” for those returned.
One deportee, who is too frightened to be named, and who was sent home in the past fortnight revealed how he was twice picked up by Zimbabwean police and beaten during hours of interrogation. Police threatened other members of his family with arrest and torture and the man has now fled to neighbouring South Africa. He said that no effort had been made by British diplomats to check what had happened to him since his deportation.
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Crespen Kulingi, a leading MDC activist, whose deportation was deferred at the weekend, said at Campsfield House detention centre, Oxford, last night that the mass hunger strike would continue.
He said “Protesters are getting very weak and sick but we are not going to stop our campaign until we are sure we will not be forced out. We have no doubt that we will be tortured and some of us killed if we are sent home.”
Maeve Sherlock, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “We are extremely disappointed that the Government has failed to take this opportunity to recognise the real dangers faced by people forced to return to Zimbabwe.”