The Zimbabwean experts clearing landmines in the Falklands – in pictures

By 2010, about 20,000 landmines remained within clearly fenced and marked-off areas. Although not all of these were anti-personnel mines, the UK remained obliged to clear all the mined areas across East and West Falkland

The Zimbabwean workers are highly skilled, with extensive experience of de-mining in their home country

Zimbabweans work on a mined beach in Stanley. Care is required to remove each mine by hand or, if necessary, conduct demolition in situ. The Falklands are 8,000 miles from the UK and have limited sea and air support

According to reports, 7m sq metres of land has been made safe, about 5,000 mines have been cleared and disposed of, and thousands of additional items of unexploded ordnance have been removed

It is hoped the work will result in the removal or elimination of all the mines that were listed in the Argentinian minefield reports

Zimbabweans work on a mined beach in Stanley

A mined beach in Stanley. Goose Green became the first settlement to be cleared last year

The littering of the Falklands with landmines was one of the most damaging legacies of the war for the residents of the islands

Jonas Muza, a member of a mine-clearing team, at his home in the Falklands

The mined areas of the Falklands make up about 0.1% of the land area, meaning they do not pose a significant danger to residents

Earlier clearance work found the landmines, which were made in Italy with small amounts of detectable metal, were still in good working order after 27 years

The mine-clearing operation began in 2009 and is expected to conclude next year