The MPs insist that the move will place Luka Phiri’s life in danger. Phiri, a former aide to the vice-president of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Thokozani Khupe, is currently being held at a crowded Colnbrook Immigration Centre in England.
Official documents show he was due to be deported last Wednesday, but the move was promptly blocked following timely intervention from the MP of the area where Phiri resides; and a ruling Labour Party’s Minister Stephen Timms, backed by a good number of other politicians, including Kate Hoey, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Zimbabwe.
Although the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has assured (following all-round allegations of ‘double-standard’ and rights violation against asylum-seekers) that his government will not remove Zimbabweans from the UK, two immigration judges have approved Phiri’s removal on the grounds he entered the country on a Malawian passport.
Phiri, who grew up in Zimbabwe, insists he acquired the Malawian passport when he fled his native country after being tortured by Robert Mugabe’s supporters.
In another twist of the event, Malawian immigration officials have threatened Phiri with arrest and prosecution if he dares enter the country, accusing the Zimbabwean of "obtaining a passport fraudulently", diplomatic sources confirmed Monday in London.
"Due to overcrowding in Malawi prisons, we will turn him over to the Zimbabwe authorities," a Malawian official stated.
With Phiri’s deportation order now the subject of a judicial review in the UK, Zimbabweans in UK pledged Monday: "We are solidly behind Luka; and strongly believe he is a Zimbabwean".
Urging the Home Office to halt his deportation, the Zimbabweans described Luka as a consistent and vocal critic of Mugabe; "whose deportation is bound to be known to the authorities in Harare".