The protest has been prompted by the UKs decision to resume deportations back to some parts of Zimbabwe, after a newly revised country guidance case found it was safe to send people back. Justice Blake from the Immigration and Asylum Chamber (IAC) on Monday announced a revised formal guideline for sending people back to Zimbabwe, paving the way for deportations from the UK to resume. Last October the UKs Immigration Minister Damian Green said that the 2006 suspension on Zimbabwean deportations would be lifted, dependent on the guidelines announced this week.
The MDC UK and Ireland External Assembly is now calling for a demonstration to protest against the decision to start deporting failed asylum seekers back to Zimbabwe, despite the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabes ZANU PF has launched an intensified campaign of violence and harassment against human rights activists and MDC members and supporters in recent weeks. The MDC UK said in a statement that Mugabe realises that he cannot win any free and fair election in Zimbabwe, so he has resorted to the same repressive tactics (he used in 2008) by arresting MDC officials, Ministers and MPs, detaining them, denying them bail, and making them rot in his filthy cells.
ZANU PF is now relying on violence, a biased police force, biased soldiers and a biased judiciary to win what it failed to win in elections. Zimbabweans have been so cowed by ZANU PF intimidation at markets, on buses, and even in their homes and villages that they no longer speak out, the MDC UK said.
The UK branch of the party accused Britains Conservative/Liberal Democratic governments of being obsessed in returning Zimbabweans back to a country that is gripped with political violence and in meltdown.
How can the Immigration and Asylum Upper Chamber say its safe to return Zimbabweans when the world media is clearly highlighting the violence in Zimbabwe and unrepentant Mugabe? the MDC UK questioned.
The group has called for a demonstration outside the Zimbabwean Embassy on Monday at noon.
Post published in: News