Zimbabwe Update -- Deportation becomes an issue

The Belfast Telegraph reports:

Pressure is mounting on ministers to halt the deportation of failed Zimbabwean asylum-seekers amid fears of increasing violence by President Robert Mugabe's regime.

Mark Oaten. the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, wrote to the Home Secretary demanding a moratorium on deportations to Zimbabwe. He said: "The Mugabe regime is wholly unsafe and plainly has no respect for human rights."

There are 116 Zimbabwean asylum-seekers in detention awaiting possible deportation, the Home Office says. Scores are on hunger strike in protest against the lifting last November of a ban on forced deportation.

Even if the protests succeed it will only affect the fate of a few hundred people at most. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands are suffering terribly in Zimbabwe.

What is to be done?

Read it here.