The Church of England demanded on Saturday that the British government stop its forced removal of asylum seekers to troubled Zimbabwe.
The call came as a Cabinet rift over this emotive issue threatened to widen, with ministers understood to have expressed profound concerns about the government returning people to a country whose President, Robert Mugabe, is under attack for abuses of human rights.
One senior government source said the Home Office (interior ministry) policy of forced returns was "outrageous." The disquiet comes as fears grow over conditions in Zimbabwe, where the homes of opposition activists have been razed to the ground by Mugabe's soldiers recently.
PHOTO: AP
"The worsening situation as Mugabe bulldozes people's homes means that we can't guarantee people's safety. I find it incredible that we are still sending people back," the government source said.
The Church's call for the government to act was unusual. "There is suffering and danger facing those asylum seekers deported to Zimbabwe," a spokesman said.
"The situation there demands a compassionate response from our government and an urgent reassessment of their policy," he said.
It is understood some Foreign Office officials have privately expressed alarm that the Home Office is continuing with the returns.
One official was quoted this weekend as saying that the Home Office needed to explain "why they think it is a safe place to send anyone who has defied Mugabe."
The government ended a two-year ban on these enforced removals last November on Foreign Office advice. But it is believed the worsening situation in Zimbabwe has prompted calls for a rethink.
The Labour MP Kate Hoey, who paid a visit to Zimbabwe earlier this year, called on the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, to act.
"The officials I speak to keep saying that this is a political decision. In the end Charles Clarke will have to be involved," Hoey said.
"No one is suggesting these people be given the right to stay for ever but the situation has deteriorated so much that we can't send people back. Anyone coming off a plane in Zimbabwe from Britain is seen as anti-Mugabe," she said.
The continued removal has sparked protests in asylum centers across the UK. Yesterday scores of Zimbabweans in the centers completed the third day of a hunger strike.
They were angry at the decision to remove a well-known opponent of Mugabe, Crispen Kulinji, who is being held at Campsfield detention center in Oxfordshire.
Following a parliamentary question tabled by Hoey, Kulinji's removal, scheduled for 10.30pm Saturday night,was deferred. Campaigners have also raised concerns about conditions in the centers.
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
Cozy knits, sparkly bobbles and Santa hats were all the canine rage on Sunday, as hundreds of sausage dogs and their owners converged on central London for an annual parade and get-together. The dachshunds’ gathering in London’s Hyde Park came after a previous “Sausage Walk” planned for Halloween had to be postponed, because it had become so popular organizers needed to apply for an events licence. “It was going to be too much fun so they canceled it,” laughed Nicky Bailey, the owner of three sausage dogs: Una and her two 19-week-old puppies Ember and Finnegan, wearing matching red coats and silver
RSS