Zimbabwe July 2006 |
|
| Asylum tribunal hearing begins in London, (Zimbabwe Journalists.com, 2006-07-04):-The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal hearing into the test cases of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers opened at the AIT yesterday with the Home Office and the Refugee Legal Council taking turns to question two main witnesses. Respected Oxford University-based academic Professor Terence Ranger, and City University’s Dr Block, took turns to support the cause of the failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers but the Home Office was having none of it. The Home Office and the Refugee Legal Council, which is representing the asylum seekers, are presenting fresh evidence supporting their arguments to the tribunal following the April decision by the Appeals court for the cases, known as “AA”, to rescind an earlier Tribunal ruling ordering the Home Office to stop deporting failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers back home. The Tribunal had ruled that it was not safe to return the failed asylum seekers since they were looked at as enemies of the state and that their security was at risk. The Home Office represented by Mr Covats and Steve Simons is arguing that it is safe to return failed asylum seekers back to Zimbabwe. While acknowledging there are human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, the Home Office is arguing not all Zimbabweans are at risk. It says it has a permanent desk at the embassy in Harare meant to monitor the returnees and ensure they are safe. The Home Office intends to embark on a pilot programme with the International Office for Migration (IOM), which presented evidence from Harare giving guarantees to the returned failed asylum seekers, to deport and monitor those sent back to Zimbabwe. Professor Ranger was grilled by the Home Office lawyers who claimed he is biased in as far as the Zimbabwean asylum seekers are concerned. The Home Office offered new evidence gathered in Harare from lawyers, churches and statements by President Mugabe calling on Zimbabweans in the diaspora to go back home and help rebuild the country. Other statements from government ministers offering protection to the failed asylum seekers were also presented. Mark Henderson of the RLC and his colleagues are arguing such statements are just mere politicking by the Zanu PF government that it will respect and protect the returned failed asylum seekers. The case is still continuing. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |