HUNDREDS of failed Zimbabwean asylum-seekers are set to remain in Britain after a tribunal yesterday halted the deportation of a dishonest and fraudulent asylum-seeker.

In a test case, the tribunal ruled that the man, who has repeatedly lied to authorities in Britain, would be at risk of harm if returned to President Mugabe’s regime. The ruling left Charle Clarke’s policy on forced deportations to Harare in disarray, with the Home Office unable to say when removals would resume.

Campaigners claimed that the judgment, which was highly critical of the Home Office, would prevent the Home Secretary from forcibly removing failed Zimbabwean asylum- seekers. In a further blow to asylum policy, the tribunal ruled that even fraudulent asylum- seekers were entitled to refugee status if there was a risk they would be harmed when sent home.

Tony McNulty, the Immigration Minister, attacked the judgment and said it had left the whole asylum and immigration system open to abuse. He said under the 1951 refugee convention, each case was decided on its merits and specific circumstances. Mr McNulty added: “This judgment drives an entire coach and horses through that and leaves the entire system open to abuse.”

But ministers will now face an uphill struggle to resume forced deportations to Zimbabwe. No failed Zimbabwean asylum-seekers were removed between January 2002 and November 2004 but in that month deportations resumed. A total of 210 failed asylum- seekers were forcibly removed until the middle of July this year when deportations were suspended while inquiries on conditions in Zimbabwe were conducted.

Mark Ockelton, chairman of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, said the man, known only as AA, had a “well founded fear of persecution” if he was returned, even though his asylum claim had been fraudulent. He said the man, aged 30, could not be sent back because, merely by making a fraudulent asylum claim, he had put himself at risk of being harmed by the Mugabe regime. The regime considered asylum- seekers to be “traitors”, and “Blair’s spies”, the tribunal was told.

A 49-page judgment is scathing about the Home Office’s attitude towards the Zimbabweans it had forcibly flown home. It criticises a joint Home Office and Foreign Office fact-finding mission sent to the country in preparation for the case and said evidence given to a High Court judge at an earlier hearing was not accurate.

The ruling said that procedures adopted by British officials ensured that the CIO, President Mugabe’s secret police, had “immediate access” to everyone forcibly deported.

“We find the respondent’s lack of interest in the process by which individuals that he returns to Zimbabwe are received by the Zimbabwean authorities rather alarming,” Mark Ockelton, the chairman of the Tribunal, said. He said that it was “rather surprising” that the Home Office had not monitored returns and had failed to trace individuals who had complained of mistreatment after being sent back to Harare.

The judgment also questioned the impartiality of a government fact-finding delegation that went to Zimbabwe in September. It comprised civil servants involved in immigration policy, rather than experienced investigators of conditions in foreign countries, Mr Ockelton said.

“The way in which the investigation was conducted, and the way in which the results were presented to us, gives rise to the possibility — we say no more than that — that the investigators may have had existing policy in mind rather more than the discovery of new facts,” he said.

The field trip, which was “front-page news” in Harare during the visit, also failed to provide hard evidence of what actually happened to failed asylum-seekers deported to Zimbabwe, the ruling said.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We are disappointed with the ruling.

“The tribunal has decided that, unlike claimants from every other country, the individual merits of Zimbabwean asylum claims do not count when assessing whether it would be safe for them to return to Zimbabwe.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• The bright side of this winter rain
• Story behind the picture: Snow Leopard, 2008
• Times Charity Appeal: The Place2Be