UK tribunal to decide fate of failed asylum seekers

By Lance Guma
22 November 2007

The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in the UK will on Friday decide the fate of thousands of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers who argue they risk persecution if deported back home. A temporary ban on deportations is in place, pending finalisation of the case which has dragged on for a long time. Initially called the AA test case the matter has now been renamed HS following on the initials of a new applicant. The only deportations taking place are targeting those who have over-stayed their visas, plus failed asylum seekers on voluntary return schemes and people who entered the country using foreign passports.

Rumbidzai Bvunzawabaya, an immigration lawyer with RBM solicitors, told our Behind the Headlines program that the tribunal will look at the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe since last summer and use that to deal with the refugee status of Zimbabweans. The circumstances surrounding HS and his case are considered more appropriate for use as a test case. This is because the initial AA case involved old country guidance criteria and events in Zimbabwe have since changed. In September this year judgment in the long running matter was reserved, adding to the frustration of countless appeals and counter-appeals by both the UK Home Office and the applicants.

Any judgment on Friday will determine new country guidance criteria for Zimbabwe and will be used to assess the vulnerability of deported failed asylum seekers. The UK Home Office has argued against blanket immunity for everyone, saying it should be allowed to decide each case on its own merits. Campaigners however say returnees, irrespective of background, are classed as agents of regime change and face possible arrest, torture and other forms of ill treatment.

Meanwhile the body of asylum seeker Adonis Musati is still stuck in South Africa. The former policeman died of hunger after spending 5 months in Cape Town trying to appeal to the Home Affairs Department for asylum. Most of that time was spent in a queue. His friends and relatives now need to raise over 19 000 rand in order to repatriate his body back to Zimbabwe. His death was covered extensively by the South African media but observers say despite the shock felt by many people over the welfare of asylum seekers not much has changed. Many have nothing more than a piece of cardboard as a shield as they queue in all weathers, sleeping on the ground and desperate not to lose their place in the endless queues that hardly move.

NB: For the full interview between Lance Guma and Rumbidzai Bvunzawabaya tune in to Thursday’s 'Behind the Headlines' programme.