Home Office to Offer Cash to Failed Zimbabwean Asylum Seekers

It now seems that the Home Office has announced that cash and aid repatriation packages worth up to £6,000 are to be offered to failed asylum seekers if they choose to voluntarily go back to Zimbabwe. The emigration minister, Phil Woolas, said that the first steps would be taken this autumn towards forcibly returning more than 10,000 failed asylum seekers who fled to the UK during Robert Mugabe's regime.

The first forcible removal of Zimbabweans was halted in September of 2006, pending a high court battle that ended in a ruling recognizing that those who were unable to demonstrate loyalty to Mugabe risked persecution if they were sent back home.

Phil Woolas said that the enhanced cash package was intended to encourage failed asylum seekers to return back home on their own free will. However, those who do not, will force the Home Office to take steps, over time, to enforce the law.

Mr Woolas went on to say that the UK Border Agency will be starting work during the autumn on a process aimed at normalizing their return policy to Zimbabwe. They wish to move back towards an enforced return plan for Zimbabweans when a political situation develops.

He also said that the Home Office took its obligations under the 1951 refugee convention seriously. Woolas continued that they will consider each case on its own merits and that those found not to be in need of protection will be return home, although they would prefer for those individuals to return home voluntarily. More information will be released at a later date.