UK urged to stop deportations

LONDON, England -- The United Nation's refugee agency has urged Britain to stop returning home unsuccessful Zimbabwean asylum-seekers.

The agency is concerned that those deported could fall foul of extra-judicial executions, hostage-taking, torture and violence in the run-up to presidential elections in March.

The fear of violence has increased after Zombabwe's government passed stringent legislation on Thursday outlawing criticism of President Robert Mugabe.

The UNHCR on Friday called on the British government to grant asylum to those who risked persecution in Zimbabwe.

Anne Dawson-Shepherd, the UNHCR representative in Britain, said in a statement: "UNHCR is gravely concerned about the serious human rights violations in Zimbabwe.

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"Those who have sought asylum in the UK should be offered a safe haven and all deportations stopped.

"Their deportation to Zimbabwe under current circumstances could jeopardise their physical safety, their liberty and their life."

But the Home Office insisted there were no grounds for it to change the basis on which unsuccessful asylum seekers were removed from Britain.

It added that an appeals procedure was available and genuine activists from Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change were likely to be granted asylum.

Of the 980 Zimbabweans who applied during 2000, nine percent were granted asylum in Britain and a further 22 percent appealed successfully against deportation

The UNHCR's call came during talks between a European Union delegation and Zimbabwean officials in Brussels during which Mugabe's regime was urged to stop human rights' violations.

The EU warned Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Stanley Mudenge that his country faced sanctions if it did not stop the violent redistribution of white farms to landless blacks.

They also called for free and fair elections on March 9-10 and one official told Reuters news agency that Zimbabwe had no problems with a request for observers to monitor the election.

"(Zimbabwe) has no problem accepting independent election observers," said Hegel Goutier of Haiti, spokesman for African, Caribbean and Pacific states.

Over the past two years, the EU has cut annual development aid to Zimbabwe from 30 million euros ($27 million) to 5 million euros ($4.5 million) a year because of what it calls the worsening human rights situation.

Officials said 128 million euros ($115 million) for the 2002-2007 period may be at stake unless Mugabe reverses the human rights situation in his country.

Goutier said Zimbabwe had also accepted an EU request for a "code of conduct" for both media and political parties in the run-up to the poll, but gave no details about how this might work.

Australia and New Zealand have said Zimbabwe should be suspended from the 54-nation Commonwealth.