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Zimbabweans to protest against the resumption of forced removals of so-called 'failed' asylum seekers
Zimbabwean Community Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers (ZCCDAS)
January 24, 2005

Hundreds of Zimbabweans from across Britain will be joining a mass protest outside the Home Office on Saturday 29 January 1.00-5.00pm against the resumption of forced removals of so-called ‘failed’ asylum seekers to Zimbabwe.

Tony Benn and Tim Lezard, Deputy President of the NUJ, will be addressing the Stop the Removals demonstration. The demonstration is also being backed by Labour and other MPs, and prominent trade unionists like Billy Hayes of the CWU. Further speakers are currently being confirmed – full details will be released to the press at the end of this week.

Many black Zimbabweans have been deported since the Home Office resumed forced removals on 16 November 2004. The majority were ‘snatched’ over Christmas, mainly from detention centres or when signing on. Force has been used. New cases are emerging daily.

Despite Home Office assurances that no one removed is in danger, ZCCDAS has evidence that every deportee is handed over to the authorities on arrival in Harare and detained for questioning. The Zimbabwean government regards them all as a threat. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has said: "we have a right to ask whether these would be deportees or Blair’s mercenaries of regime change". ZCCDAS fears for the fate of several who have disappeared and others who we know have been beaten and threatened after deportation. Lawyers are currently fighting for the return of some of those under threat. Some asylum seekers, like the journalist Adolf Mukandi, are now contemplating suicide rather than being sent back home.

The resumption of deportations in November 2004 overturned an earlier Home Office decision to suspend removals to Zimbabwe in 2002. The suspension followed the protests of refugee groups, human rights lawyers and the UNHCR who highlighted the dire human rights situation in Zimbabwe and the fact many deportees were facing imprisonment and torture on their return. Little has changed since. Only six days before forced removals were resumed, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office stated: "The human rights situation in Zimbabwe remains in crisis. On-going violations of human rights include the stifling of democratic opposition, police abuse, torture and absence of freedom of expression and association". The UNHCR reiterated that Zimbabwe remains unsafe for forced returns on 14 December 2004.

The Stop the Removals demonstration has been called by the Zimbabwean Community Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers. ZCCDAS is a politically independent group led and run by black Zimbabweans that organizes refugees and migrant workers living in Britain. It is affiliated to the Campaign Against Immigration Slavery (CAIS), Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers (CDAS), National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC), and Refugee Asylum and Migration Network (RAMN). All are backing the demonstration.

For more information contact: ZCCDAS Press Officer Brighton Chireka on 07960209253

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