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(TALKZIMBABWE) Tsvangirai hecklers were failed asylum seekers, says British minister

Tsvangirai hecklers were failed asylum seekers, says British minister
Nancy Pasipanodya
Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:18:00 +0000

THE British minister responsible for Africa says Zimbabweans who booed and jeered at Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai during an address at London's Southwark Cathedral were failed asylum seekers who had their own agenda.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai was booed and heckled when he said that Zimbabweans living in the UK should consider coming home to help rebuild the country.

Lord Mark Malloch Brown, the UK Labour Government's Foreign Office Minister with responsibility for Africa said "quite a few" of the hecklers who had gathered at the Anglican Cathedral were failed asylum seekers.

"I think the protesters at Southwark Cathedral were also in part motivated by the fact that there are quite a few so called illegal asylum seekers," said Malloch Brown in an interview with 5 Live on Wednesday.

He added that it was those failed asylum seekers "who’ve had their asylum seeking requests refused in the UK who once things are normal in Zimbabwe would have to go home."

He said the heckling was in part motivated by fear of returning home and most of them were not merely responding to the Prime Minister's "performance in Zimbabwe".

"So I think there was a lot going on in that church meeting and it wasn’t just a commentary on Morgan Tsvangirai’s performance in Zimbabwe. It had a lot to do with asylum and refugee issues as well."

The British Government has halted its policy of returning Zimbabwean asylum seekers to their country.

The actual number of both asylum seekers and failed asylum seekers in the UK from Zimbabwe is not known. In 2008 there was an estimated 7,000 Zimbabwean asylum-seekers in the UK.

This number has significantly increased in 2009 after news went round that the Home Office had set March 31, 2009 as deadline for asylum claims by Zimbabweans.

The Home Office denied this news, but thousands of Zimbabweans nevertheless claimed asylum in the period leading to March 31st.

Labels: MARK MALLOCH-BROWN, MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI

posted by MrK @ 3:54 PM