CHARLES CLARKE is under growing pressure to explain why he assured the Commons that deported Zimbabwean asylum-seekers would come to no harm, when there is mounting evidence that some have been tortured.
After revelations in The Times about the violence suffered by some deportees, MPs from all sides demanded yesterday that the Home Secretary face them before the start of the G8 summit and spell out whether Britain can provide any help to these victims.
Liam Fox, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, called on Mr Clarke to halt deportations. “All deportations should be stopped to Zimbabwe until we have in place a mechanism that can assure the safety [of those returned],” he said. “The Government says that there is no evidence of maltreatment. That is because the asylum-seekers disappear on their return. The wilful naivety with which the whole approach to Zimbabwe is being conducted I find offensive.”
The Home Secretary also faced demands from a growing chorus of MPs to report on the deteriorating health of 90 Zimbabwean hunger strikers held at British detention centres.
Among them is Absolom Mashamba, 34, a former prosecutor, who is due to be flown back to Harare today.
Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford and Abingdon, whose constituency includes the Campsfield House detention centre where Mr Mashamba is on the fifteenth day of his fast, is trying to block his removal. “I will be furious if he is removed,” Dr Harris said.
“I told Charles Clarke it is hypocritical to claim that Mugabe is an evil tyrant with an appalling human rights record and then claim it’s safe to return for anyone who has gone against the regime by making an asylum claim, let alone one who may have as strong a case as Mr Mashamba does”.
Mr Mashamba was a senior figure in the Zimbabwe judiciary when he was arrested in 2001 by police hunting his sister, a noted opposition figure. She fled to Britain where she was granted asylum status.
Mr Mashamba’s face and head still bear the scars from being beaten and given electric shocks. “My head was forced into a bucket of dirty water until I nearly drowned,” he told The Times last night.
Some weeks later he was detained and tortured again. He fled to Britain on April 17, 2001.
His claims for asylum were refused and he was held in Walton prison in Liverpool for a time until fellow Zimbabwean refugees helped him to get bail.
Mr Mashamba went underground, living with his English-born partner to avoid deportation in September 2001, but was arrested last month as the Home Office stepped up its deportation of Zimbabweans.
“I would rather die here than face what happened to me before,” he said. “That will never be wiped from my mind. If they try to handcuff me and drag me on to a plane I will use what strength I have left to fight being sent back.”
The Home Office — which misspelled his name on a memo — insisted again last night that there is no change of heart on forced removals, but immigration officials have called off a string of deportations since the hunger strike started. Those given a reprieve last week told The Times yesterday that they are fearful that they will be sent back once the G8 summit is over.
Kate Hoey, the Labour MP for Vauxhall, and Alastair Burt, the Tory MP for Bedfordshire North East, were among those demanding a new statement from the Home Secretary.
“It is unprecedented to have so many asylum-seekers on a hunger strike in detention,” Ms Hoey said. “Does Charles Clarke want someone to die before he comes to his senses?” She is also urging the Government to persuade the South African authorities not to return a 26-year-old man deported from Britain last month who escaped custody after being beaten by Zimbabwean police.
The victim, who gave his name as Vincent, had worked for a Christian charity in Bulawayo, which brought him up after his parents were murdered by a militia belonging to Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu (PF) party in the early 1980s.
He also worked for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. He was beaten after being questioned about that work and in November 2002 the charity gave him the money to flee to Manchester.
When he arrived back at Harare airport last month he was immediately arrested and beaten during three days of interrogation.
After his release Vincent went to Bulawayo, where police were again waiting for him. Two more periods of brutal detention followed and his relatives were threatened so he escaped to South Africa.
His cousin, who asked not to be named, told The Times that Vincent was picked up at the weekend by South African police who said that he will be sent back within 48 hours.
A spokesman for the United Network of Detained Zimbabweans said: “How much more proof does Charles Clarke need that deportees suffer violence when they are forcibly returned?”
UNFOLDING ROW
November 16, 2004
Government ends two-year ban on deporting Zimbabwean asylum-seekers, saying it was being abused
January-March 2005
About 95 Zimbabweans forcibly removed
May 28
Zimbabwean paramilitary police destroy shanty homes in Harare to punish urban voters who opposed President Mugabe in March elections
June 22
Opposition activist Crespen Kulingi initiates mass hunger strike after learning he would be sent back
June 24
Charles Clarke agrees to suspend Mr Kulingi’s expulsion
June 27
Mr Clarke agrees to study new evidence on behalf of 114 facing expulsion. More than 100 allowed to stay pending appeals
June 28
Immigration chiefs halt deportations until after G8 summit
July 2
Hunger striker Patricia Mukandara, 26, saved from deportation by a High Court injunction
DEBATE
Is deportation suspension a 'cynical ploy'?
Join the debate at www.timesonline.co.uk/debate
