d “prohibited immigrants”.
No official reasons were given by the Zambian government with regards to the refusal of entry.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) Director, Arnold Tsunga, on Wednesday said the deportations were illegal and they were preparing to file for an urgent court application to have the deportations reversed.
“It’s simply embarrassing and very worrying that the Zambian government has decided to side with the Zanu PF regime in perpetrating these human rights abuses. Again it paints a very bad picture on the seriousness of the SADC leadership in addressing the issues of governance and the respect of rule of law,” said Tsunga.
The SADC civil society organisations forum yesterday also issued a statement calling for the Zimbabwean government to immediately release the detained activists.
“We therefore call upon the government of Zambia to immediately permit entry inot Zambia to the civil society activists to enbale them to attend the 3rd SADC CSO Forum and the people’s summit,” said the forum in a statement.
They also call for the SADC heads of States to investigate the events and make a public statement on the outcome of the their investigations.
“We also believe this is a deliberate attempt to frustrate the right of civil society to have access and ability to engage the SADC heads of states concerning the issue of Zimbabwe.”
Names of the activists who were deported were yet to be confirmed by the time of writing this article-CAJ News.