Deportation 'reprieve' for Mugabe opponent

A Zimbabwean opposition leader facing deportation has won a last-minute reprieve from Britain's Home Office, he said today.

It comes as a hunger strike among Zimbabwean asylum seekers spreads through the UK’s immigration detention centres.

More than 20 have been protesting for two days against the lifting last November of a ban which prevented Zimbabweans from being deported against their will.

Crispen Kulinji was due to be deported tomorrow (Saturday) but won a reprieve after the intervention of Labour MP Kate Hoey.

Mr Kulinji, 32, from Harare, an organising secretary and election co-ordinator for the Movement for Democratic Change, is recovering from injuries he claims he sustained in jail in Zimbabwe.

Speaking from Campsfield House, in Oxford, he said: “My solicitor has told me that the flight tomorrow has been cancelled.

“I am pleased for that but I am going to continue with the others on hunger strike.

“We are not prepared to go and face a dictator at home and we feel the UK government is using double standards.”

The National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns claims that almost 100 Zimbabweans in detention are now on hunger strike.

The Home Office said tonight the figure was 21.

GSL, formerly part of Group 4, confirmed that 20 Zimbabweans were on hunger strikes in two of its immigration centres, at Yard’s Wood, Bedford, and Campsfield House.

Kate Hoey MP said: “It is just unbelievable that we would think to send some of these people back to a country that’s just falling apart.

“They are at a real risk, particularly if they are coming from the UK, as they will automatically be considered to be anti-Mugabi.

“We need the ban on deportations brought back again as the situation is much worse now than it was then.”

More than 15,000 Zimbabweans fled to Britain in the four years up to 2004, though only a few hundred have been granted asylum.

In the first three months of 2005, 95 Zimbabweans were forcibly removed and another 104 are currently in detention awaiting possible deportation.

The Home Office said on Thursday it had no plans to halt the removals and would not comment on the individual case of Mr Kulingi.

Tony McNulty, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality, said: “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 of any person returned to the country.

“We do, however, continue to keep the situation under review and will investigate any allegations of mistreatment of returnees.”

An Amnesty International spokesman said: “We were shocked at the government’s decision last year to start sending unsuccessful asylum applicants back to Zimbabwe.”