§ Baroness Park of Monmouthasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many Zimbabweans whose applications for asylum have been refused since November 2000 were put in detention, whether any have been returned to their country of origin, and, of the remaining, whether it is proposed to return any of them to their country of origin. [HL1290]
§ Lord Bassam of BrightonInformation about: the number of Zimbabwean nationals who have been detained following the refusal of their asylum application is not held centrally and could only be obtained by examining individual case files.
Information about removals under Immigration Act powers is collected by nationality rather than destination. It is therefore not possible to say how many failed asylum seekers have been returned to Zimbabwe since November 2000 without examining the individual files.
Where a Zimbabwean is found not to be a refugee and does not qualify for leave to enter or remain in the 43WA United Kingdom, our normal course of action would be to remove them to Zimbabwe. The current situation is kept under constant review and there are presently no reasons why refused asylum seekers should not be returned to Zimbabwe.