Monthly Archives: August 2018

Political hot potato: Home Office refuses to disclose whether the Zimbabwean government will now issue ETD’s to non-consenting undocumented returnees

Posted on by Standard Reply

The subject of whether the Zimbabwean government has now made a U-turn from Mugabe’s previous position of refusing to accept unwilling Zimbabwean returnees without valid national passports, seems too hot to handle.

 

“A Response from the UK Government is long overdue, with stated reasons on 25 July 2018 being that, “ this is due to internal delays with our FOI process”.    It therefore remains to be seen, which if any, of the questions raised will be addressed by the Home Office in response”, was the conclusion to the recent blog post of 3 August 2018, The impact of Mnangagwa’s win upon UK based Zimbabwean asylum claimants

 

As I suspected, the Home office have refused to provide disclosure to any of the questions asked as regards whether there is now in practice an agreement between the UK and Zimbabwean government of enforcing returns of non- consenting undocumented Zimbabweans. The irksome problem for the UK government arising from their inability to enforce returns for such persons is summarized in a previous recent blog post: Is Mnangagwa’s New  Government paving the way for  UK mass removals of failed Zimbabwean Asylum Claimants ?

Continue reading

The Preliminary Information Questionnaire: Are we headed back to an increased use of non-compliance based asylum refusal decisions?

Posted on by Standard Reply

The SEF is back! Not as we know it, but under the guise of the Preliminary Information Questionnaire(PIQ). The Home Office have in recent weeks been sending out the questionnaire to a good number of adults who have claimed asylum, been screened but are yet to be substantively interviewed.

Continue reading

The impact of Mnangagwa’s win upon UK based Zimbabwean asylum claimants

Posted on by Standard 4

For those that dared to hope and dream that the July elections in Zimbabwe would result in a win for the opposition…….. it’s now time to wake up.  ZANU(PF) remains in power.

 

Whether or not the MDC Alliance will challenge President Emmerson Mnanganwa’s triumph over Nelson Chamisa, the practical reality is that ZANU(PF), as usual, has floored the opposition and maintained it’s tight hold on power.

 

Mnangagwa’s triumph however is bitter sweet. The façade of peace and non- violence that he sought to painstakingly present since last November has fully fallen away.  It took only 8months to do so.  Just when it was thought the elections would pass peacefully so as to legitimatise a Government brought about by a coup, violence and death came knocking. The ever present monstrous side of ZANU(PF) raised it’s ugly head. On 1 August 2018, the Zimbabwean government sanctioned the use of the Zimbabwean army, which with a show of violent force, shot and killed its own citizens. Why? Some opposition supporters had come out in protest over perceived rigging and delays in announcing the Presidential elections results.

 

Continue reading