No change to Zimbabwe removals policy
The Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said there will be no change in the Government’s policy on removing asylum seekers from Zimbabwe.
The Government has recently been facing mounting pressure to suspend the planned deportation of Zimbabwean nationals after a two-year ban on forced removals to Zimbabwe ended in November 2004.
Dozens of Zimbabwean asylum seekers in UK deportation centres went on hunger strike last week in protest at their planned removal, and the Liberal Democrats want a review of all 116 cases of people who face being sent back.
But today, Mr Clarke told the House of Commons: “There are not sufficient grounds to reverse last November’s decision.”
He warned that the blanket suspension of removals would only encourage those people who did not genuinely face persecution, adding that it was right to look at each case on its own merits.
Earlier, Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted he “despaired” over the situation in Zimbabwe but said international opinion was not yet in favour of action against president Robert Mugabe.
Asked how he could claim to be helping Africa when he was not prepared to crack down on the Mugabe regime, Mr Blair said the situation was “a real problem for us”.
“I feel very frustrated about the situation in Zimbabwe. I desperately want to do more,” he told journalists at his monthly press conference.
He said Zimbabwe’s “salvation” could only be achieved through the intervention of its African neighbours, adding he would be urging them to recognise that the situation in Zimbabwe was a “disgrace”.
News of the Government’s decision will disappoint Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten, who earlier said: “In these dreadful circumstances, we should place all deportations to Zimbabwe on hold.
“The Mugabe regime is wholly unsafe and plainly has no respect for human rights.”
Conservative Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said the problems Britain was facing with Zimbabwe would not have happened had the Government “shown greater leadership in the past”.
