BRITAIN: The British Home Office was set to deport a political dissident to Zimbabwe last night, despite his claim of facing "anything between torture and death" upon arrival there.
And lawyers claimed at least 15 others presently seeking asylum in Britain faced a similar fate, as the Home Office insisted it saw no reason to change its policy on "removals". Applicants from Zimbabwe are subject to the Home Office's "fast-track" procedure, with limited rights of appeal and cases usually determined within one week. The BBC's PM programme - which broke the news of last night's scheduled deportation - claimed at least 20 other people have been sent back to Zimbabwe from Britain since December 22nd.
The removal of a man whose real name could not be disclosed because of fear of reprisals was going ahead despite the intervention of Mr Chris Mullin, the influential chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.
As Mr Mullin confirmed his failure to win a reprieve, the Home Office said its "country assessment" was last updated in October; while the situation in Zimbabwe was monitored on a daily basis, it did not accept that the current situation there required "the suspension of removals". That assertion begged questions about the government's overall position on Zimbabwe just a day after the Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said he would support its suspension from the Commonwealth if President Robert Mugabe's regime continued to sanction intimidation and land seizures.
That questioning also coincided with a separate development in which the Conservatives suggested moral repugnance would not impress Mr Mugabe. The party's deputy leader and shadow foreign secretary, Mr Michael Ancram, said the threat of suspension from the Commonwealth would hold "little menace" for Mr Mugabe. "I don't think it is an enormously heavy threat to wave at all," Mr Ancram said. "Fiji and Pakistan are suspended and I don't think in either of those places it has been regarded as an enormous sanction. We need something much more powerful here if we are to persuade Mr Mugabe and his henchmen that the route they are on is a route to destruction and they must come off it." He called for an international coalition to prepare "smart sanctions" against Mr Mugabe's funds and ability to travel abroad.