Zimbabwe: Asylum Seekers (Hansard, 16 January 2002)

§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Rooker)
My Lords, the Home Secretary has decided to suspend removals to Zimbabwe until after the presidential election is held. We shall then assess the country situation and the risks faced by individual returnees and decide whether to resume removals. In the meantime, consideration of individual applications for asylum will continue.

§ Lord Clinton-Davis
My Lords, I am absolutely delighted that the Government have seen sense at last on this sensitive issue. But why did a spokesman say to the press as late as Saturday night that there would not be a suspension of removals at this point? Was that not calculated to arouse fear unnecessarily among Zimbabwean asylum seekers?

§ Lord Rooker
My Lords, I do not accept what my noble friend says. It is not fair to blame a spokesman for what was said on Saturday night. At ten past live on Monday this week I made exactly the same statement. Until the policy changes, it remains in place.

Noble Lords
Oh!

§ Lord Rooker
My Lords, that is the reality; that is the way it is. On Monday I also made the point that we were not planning to return anyone on Monday evening. The policy has been under active consideration. It has not gone away over recent months and, contrary to what is said, we have not been working on old information. We have been assessing the situation on an almost daily basis.

§ Lord Howell of Guildford
My Lords, I believe that we all appreciate this change of policy and the fact that the matter is under constant review and consideration, and so on. But is the Minister aware of widespread complaints That the Home Office assessments always 1074 run hopelessly behind the pace of events in Zimbabwe? Is it not disgraceful that politically vulnerable people have been deported and sent back to Zimbabwe when it has been widely known for weeks and months that the country is descending into a police state? That has been perfectly obvious even to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Is there no contact between the Foreign Office and the Home Office? If not, can such contact take place now so that this situation does not arise again?

§ Lord Rooker
My Lords, what the noble Lord said is not the reality of the situation. The fact that we publish the country assessments only twice a year in April and October does not mean that nothing happens between those times. Our case workers use the most up-to-date information available. When assessing an individual case, either they refer to extra bulletins which are provided following publication of the country assessments or they take advice from people inside the Home Office, the Foreign Office, our embassies and high commissions abroad, diplomats on the ground or others in the country of origin. Each case is judged on its merits. It is simply not the case that we use old information.
As everyone knows, the situation has deteriorated ever since President Mugabe began his attempt to introduce so-called "land reform". But we have constantly updated our assessments and, indeed, we received further advice from the Foreign Office on Monday this week. The policy was announced by the Home Secretary yesterday, but it will not alter individual cases. We shall continue to assess each case on its merits. We shall then assess the situation after the elections have taken place.

§ Lord Avebury
My Lords, if the CIPU assessments are updated on a regular basis, why cannot they be published on the web so that advisers and adjudicators can see them there? Secondly, what are the Government intending to do about their arrangements following the decision by the Secretary of Slate yesterday? Will bail be granted automatically to anyone who has been through the appeal process and is now awaiting the presidential elections before the Secretary of State makes a decision on whether to send back that person? Will the Secretary or State now also reconsider the Oakington treatment, which is applied to all Zimbabwean asylum seekers automatically?

§ Lord Rooker
My Lords, we are taking legal advice on the position regarding bail. As is known, detainees cannot be removed until after the election has taken place, when the situation will be reassessed. As we debated at length during the passage of the anti-terrorism Bill last year, a different legal situation arises if we know that we cannot remove a person. In such a case, we cannot normally detain that person. However, we are taking legal advice on that situation at present.
1075 So far as concerns the bulletins, I understand that they are available. They are not published in the way that the country assessments are published in April and October, but extra bulletins are indeed available. I cannot say how quickly they are put on to the web.
In relation to the question about Oakington, the answer is: no. We shall maintain the Oakington situation and I shall give noble Lords two good reasons why. Since the beginning of this year—it is now only the 16th of the month—there have been at least two cases, among others, of people arriving in this country from Zimbabwe. The two people in question—one arrived on 2nd January and the other on the 5th—went to Oakington for fast-tracking. They were interviewed on 7th and 9th January. Both were granted asylum. In other words, there is another side to the coin: people from Zimbabwe are passing through Oakington and being granted asylum. The idea that everyone is rejected is nonsense. The vast majority are rejected, but noble Lords may have heard the interview on the "PM" programme last night of the official on the ground from the MDC in Zimbabwe. He spoke about people—the vast majority of whom were not MDC activists—buying MDC letters and coming to this country. Thus, noble Lords will see that there are two sides to the argument.