By Violet Gonda
11 July 2005

55 Zimbabwean asylum seekers protesting at forced deportations in the UK have suspended their hunger strike, pending a High Court hearing on 4th August.
The detainees had been on a hunger strike since June 3rd.
The group says they will continue if the threats to send them back to Zimbabwe reappear. They say they risk abuse in Zimbabwe because they claimed asylum in the UK.
A spokesman for the United Network of Detained Zimbabweans in the UK (UNDZ), stressed that the action had only been suspended.
The spokesman, Noble Sibanda added: "Our united resolve and the solid support of some wonderful lawyers and doctors and other human rights activists has helped us to bring our plight and the desperate plight of the people of Zimbabwe to the attention of the British public. We have been given strength to continue knowing that we are not forgotten and that MPs and peers are arguing for us in Parliament at Westminster."
A doctor at Homerton University Hospital who examined one of the hunger strikers, Mqhubel Timbha, said he was in a "very serious condition".
The Home Office said a second hunger striker was taken to hospital on Saturday as a "precaution", adding there were "no concerns over their health at all".