PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has said that an unspecified number of criminals claiming to be Zimbabwean asylum seekers in Britain will be arrested and imprisoned when they are deported from that country.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Chirumanzu recenty, President Mugabe said among those who had sought refuge in Britain were criminals fleeing from the law.
He emphasized if the British government deports these criminals to Zimbabwe, they will be arrested at the airport and detained. Some of the deportees will be asked to pay fines while others will be imprisoned. His statement comes in the wake of letters sent out by the Home Office informing failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers that because their applications for political asylum had failed and they had exhausted their rights of appeal, they had no other basis of stay in Britain and should now make plans to return home.
“Your claim for asylum has been refused,” the letters say. “I am now writing to make sure that you know that the Border and Immigration Agency is expecting shortly to be able to enforce returns to Zimbabwe. The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal has now found that there is no general risk on return for failed asylum-seekers.” Meanwhile, Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council, has said it is unacceptable that the British government should be considering forcing asylum seekers to return to Zimbabwe.
UK ministers are preparing to expel hundreds of failed asylum-seekers back to Zimbabwe, seriously undermining Gordon Brown's publicly declared tough stance on Zimbabwe.
Zimbabweans have previously enjoyed protection in the UK under a moratorium on deportations.
The first phase of the new asylum removal drive will target 500 failed asylum-seekers from Zimbabwe living in the north-west of England. In all, more than 1,000 people are likely to be affected in the near future, out of some 7,000 Zimbabwean asylum-seekers in the UK.
In his inagural speech as British PM Gordon Brown promised asylum seekers safe haven in the UK. "The message should go out to anyone facing persecution anywhere from Burma to Zimbabwe: human rights are universal and no injustice can last for ever," he said.
Gordon Brown has been criticised for double standards with regards to immigration policy and one newspaper labelled Brown's policy as "Britain's refugee shame."
President Mugabe, however, made a reassurance that not everyone being deported from the UK faces imprisonment. "Britain is now full of those who fled from here claiming that they were at risk of being arrested for political reasons. We do not want to arrest any of those except those who fled crimes, and those who fled crimes are not the only ones who went to Britain, no," he said.
"There are so many of them that you cannot count them on your fingers, a few, those are the ones who have big cases that they fled from here. Those one, their cases will never rot. There in Britain, if they do not want to come back to admit that 'Yes, I stole; I did wrong,' if you are to pay a fine, then you pay a fine, if the penalty means you go to prison, then you go to prison because you stole people's money."
Meanwhile, President Mugabe has warned the MDC that his government will not hesitate to use force if they plan to carry out Kenyan-style violence after the elections. Mugabe was responding to threats by MDC MP for St Mary’s Job Sikhala who threatened Kenya-style disturbances if Zanu PF wins.
Police have since declared zero tolerance for politically motivated violence.
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n/a • n/a Subject: we will miss this Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:45:10 • Tinenge takavamirira ku airport.Ah,tingavarega here vanhu vanoba mari yehurumende.......kubira vanhu votiza voenda kwanaBlair vachinospreader nhema pamusana penyika.............
ha ha ha ha............a drum full of jokes!For 3 decades,we enjoyed them.From tomorrow onwards,we will miss them.
Omuhle • n/a Subject: n/a Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:46:48 • What is going on here? Are we to read between the lines? I've always suspected there is a reason these people are been deported so close to election time. Are they insurgents trained by the colonialists on acts of insurgency? There has to be a reason for the timing, especially when with one breathe the home office is saying go back, you are not under any threat and with another Gordon Brown is boycotting Lisbon summits because Mugabe is killing and harassing his people.
However, another theory is that Mugabe wants these asylum seekers to remain in the UK because without their forex sent in the hundreds of thousands every month the country would have flopped a long time ago.
Either way these people are being used by both London and Harare to score points. Can I renounce my citizenship and just say I'm a member of the UN. Of no fixed nationality, just wondering from pillar to post, offering my skills and knowledge to whoever will grant me sanctuary?
Zvino totizira kupi? Persecuted at home and deported abroad. Mugabe is lying about only criminals will be prosecuted and jailed. Anyone likely to vote opposition is going to be detained Zimbabwean style. That style entails rotting in remand prison while the docket goes missing or the investigating officer is traced somewhere in the remotest part of the country or while the magistrates' court tries to clear the backlog of court cases. Then after elections it is miraculously discovered there was no case in the first place or you are fined a pittance of less than £5, released and it's too late to cast your vote for the opposition.
Zimbabwe has a long way to go before we can rid ourselves of what we call justice - which is actually just a kangaroo republic at the beck and call of a dictatorship ruling clique.
PIVO-PIVO • Pivo@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Deportations Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:16:27 • This is fund raising campaign by Bob, I tell you that every one will be labelled a criminal on arrival at Harare airport, the fines will be paid in foreign currency they did the same some years back at Beit Bridge were deportees from South Africa were forced to pay fines in rands.
Alisadar Budd • airbud@tisali.co.uk Subject: wewwa Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:21:46 • And if you don't have a criminal record when you're deported Zanu pf and the ZRP will kindly make one up for you when you arrive in Zimbabwe.
Shortly after you've already voted with your family members back to the sixth generation, no matter even if rigor mortis set in in 1923.
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