Author-May Bulman
The Home Office is to be challenged in court over its practice of inviting foreign government representatives to interview political asylum seekers after The Independent exposed the “corrupt” exercise.
It emerged last December that people who had fled political persecution in Zimbabwe and claimed asylum in the UK were ordered by the Home Office to attend meetings where they were asked “distressing” questions by Zimbabwean officials.
The move was believed to have been part of an agreement between the two governments that Britain would “repatriate” at least 2,500 failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe providing that officials from the country could “vet” them beforehand. The Home Office did not deny these allegations.
The High Court has now granted permission for the practice to be challenged in court, with the evidence uncovered by this newspaper forming part of the basis for the challenge.
The judge expressed concern about the alleged policy of collaboration with the Zimbabwean authorities and the fact that the Home Office had failed to provide any details about the practice.
If successful, the judgement could force the UK government to reconsider the claims of hundreds of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers who may have been subject to this policy.
Failed asylum seekers who have been subjected to the practice described being “terrified” when they discovered that officials from their country were to interrogate them.
One woman, who has been in the UK for 16 years and had her initial asylum claim rejected, was invited to one of the meetings in Sheffield last December. She refused to be questioned without her solicitor and was permitted to leave. In August, she was granted refugee status.
Recalling the meeting, the woman, who did not want to be named, told The Independent: “The man had my file on the table. He started speaking to me in my native language. He said the British government and the Zimbabwean government had agreed to send some of the Zimbabwean people back to their country.
“I was frightened, and very angry. Why was the British government allowing this person to be in their office? We are hiding here and they bring someone who I’m running away from. How can you say Zimbabwe is okay now when people are being kidnapped, tortured?”
