Category Archives: Asylum

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

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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 ?

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

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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.

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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.

 

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GUEST BLOG by Counsel, Becket Bedford: Ahmed, JK v Sweden and the burden and standard of proof

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In the Court of Appeal, verification by the State of documentary or other evidence is sometimes, but rarely, required to assist an applicant to establish his claim: see MA (Bangladesh) v SSHD [2016] EWCA Civ 175 at §29; PJ (Sri Lanka) v SSHD [2015] 1 WLR 1322 at §29, explaining and confirming the Tribunal decisions in Ahmed v SSHD [2002] Imm AR 318; MJ v SSHD [2013] Imm AR 799; and NA v SSHD [2014] UKUT 205.

 

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New Zimbabwe Home Office Policy Note April 2018 – After Mugabe, no fundamental change to the political environment or treatment of opposition

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“While the tone of political rhetoric has been more conciliatory since Mr Mnangagwa came to power, there is a lack of clear and cogent evidence that the government has fundamentally changed the political environment or how it treats those opposed to the state”, so concludes the Country policy and information note Zimbabwe: opposition to the government, April 2018 published on 30 April 2018 by the Home Office.

 

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An ex-dictator and the Mnangagwa regime behind the façade of legality: Effect on UK based Zimbabwean activists

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There are some, who would readily dismiss without further thought Robert Mugabe’s  recent denouncements of the  military intervention of November 2017,  including  what he says happened during the  takeover.   Mugabe is  mad  they exclaim.   He is a  bitter, senile  old man they mutter  with exasperation.   That might be  substantially or wholly  true but consider for  a while,  if you will, whether there is  any shred of truth  in what he says  happened  last year:

 

“ ……The Central Intelligence Organisation,  many of whose members were bashed, with heads cracked and this is not an exaggeration,  some of them are missing to this day…..” 15 March 2018, SABC Digital News, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f6akTpjIHo

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