ing that it is safe to send Zimbabwean dissidents back home.
Mr Clarke agreed last night to suspend the expulsion of Crespen Kulingi, a leading opposition figure who was due to be deported today. The decision indicates that pressure is mounting on the Home Office to stop the removals.
Hunger strikes by Zimbabwean asylum-seekers spread to more detention centres in Britain yesterday as Whitehall officials hinted at a review of the deportation policy next week.
A senior Foreign Office and Commonwealth source said: “The deportations are down to the Home Office and they must explain why they think it is a safe place to send anyone who has defied Mugabe”….
The Zimbabwe Community Association (ZCA) told The Times that scores of failed asylum-seekers recently removed from Britain had been detained by Mr Mugabe’s secret police as soon as they arrived back in the country. Their families said that they had heard nothing from them….
Refugee groups say that the Home Office is more concerned at meeting quotas to expel failed asylum-seekers than with investigating the fate of those who are expelled….
Morgan Tsvangarai, the MDC leader, sent a taped message saying that his close aide would be tortured if he is returned, but the Home Office said that it had lost the cassette….
The ZCA criticised Britain’s decision to send failed asylum-seekers to Malawi, where they allege that Mr Mugabe’s security agents operate. A spokesman outlined the case of Courage, a 32-year-old father of two, who was deported to Malawi last month, then picked up by agents of the Central Intelligence Organisation. Nothing has been heard of him since.
Tom McNulty, the Home Office Minister, said last night: “We categorically condemn human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and are committed to providing protection to those Zimbabweans in genuine fear of persecution. Since returns were resumed to Zimbabwe last November we have received no substantiated reports of abuse.”
No substantiated reports of abuse? Really, what can you say….
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