“[T]here is no doubt in our mind that the Appellant’s claim to asylum was, in all its substantive parts, fraudulent, and that the Appellant himself has been deliberately dishonest in almost all his dealings with the authorities in this country.”
“… We … approach with caution the reports that a number of recent returnees have never re-appeared once they were taken from the plane by CIO agents and that others have disappeared. No names or details have been provided and if, as Professor Ranger says, the returns have been carefully monitored, we would have thought such details would be available. Nonetheless the Tribunal is satisfied in the light of the statements made by the Zimbabwean authorities that returnees are regarded with contempt and suspicion on return and do face a very hostile atmosphere. This by itself does not indicate that all returnees are at real risk of persecution, but that returnees are liable to have their background and circumstances carefully scrutinised by the authorities. We are satisfied that those who are suspected of being politically active with the MDC would be at real risk. We agree with Professor Ranger that if the authorities have any reason to believe that someone is politically active the interrogation will be followed up. There is a reasonable degree of likelihood that this will include treatment sufficiently serious to amount to persecution.”
“In the present appeal, the Appellant needs to establish a real risk to returned asylum seekers. He does not need to show that all, or nearly all, returned asylum seekers are harmed. He needs only to show that all returned asylum seekers are at real risk of harm. He can do that, as a matter of logic (and in our judgment as a matter of law) by any evidence that properly leads to the conclusion in question.”
“[X] told me that all the returned asylum-seekers are questioned because they are all considered to be a security risk. It is believed by the security services that the returned asylum-seekers have been trained in military procedures and are now being sent back to destabilise the country. He told me that they are all handed over to the CIO who carry out thorough questioning and then decide what should be done. [X] went on to tell me that those asylum-seekers who are released are nevertheless kept under surveillance. They are made to attend the ZANU-PF meetings in their area, wear ZANU-PF T-shirts, denounce the MDC and, in some cases, are required to report to the police station.”
"We will be better off with only six million people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle. We don't want all these extra people"
“He has not been cross-examined on his evidence. It records treatment of a returnee who had not in fact claimed asylum before being returned but nonetheless, assuming the account to be true, shows the interest of the CIO in returnees and the extent of the mistreatment when a full investigation is carried out.”
“This witness is the returnee referred to in paragraph 41 in SM where the Tribunal commented about the doubts it felt about this account, but that comment must be seen in the context of the very limited evidence produced at that hearing as compared with the further evidence produced at this hearing. This evidence shows how one returnee is said to have been treated in 2002 and forms part of the background picture... [The situation] appears to have deteriorated [since 2002] for anybody that is conceivably capable of being seen as a less than wholehearted supporter of the regime. The seriousness of the present situation is clear not only from the CIPU Report, the newspaper reports and the background information, particularly from the UNHCR.”
"threats by the United Kingdom to deport about 10,000 Zimbabweans which could be a cover to deploy elements trained in sabotage, intimidation and violence and destabilise the country before and during next March's Parliament elections."
“And the truth of the matter is that whatever doubts one might have about the complainants individually, the body of evidence, from a score of separate people, all goes one way. Further, none of it seems to bear any mark of unreliability, and all of it accords with what one would generally expect of the CIO.”
“As we have attempted to explain above, the claim that every person returned involuntarily is at real risk of ill-treatment is not a claim that every one will in fact suffer ill-treatment. Likewise, looking at the past, the Appellant does not need to show that all those who have been returned involuntarily did suffer ill-treatment. He is entitled to rely, as he does, on evidence pointing to a substantial number of cases in the context of general evidence showing the source or reason for the risk.”
“If failed Zimbabwean asylum-seekers do as such have a well-founded fear of persecution, this would be for a Convention reason, namely perceived or imputed political opinion.” (Emphasis added)
“There are a number of recent decisions of this court which make it clear that as the IAT (prior to its abolition in April 2005) could only entertain an appeal on a point of law (seesection 101(1) of the Nationality Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 ) it was necessary for a point of law to be discernible in the grounds of appeal when permission to appeal was given (see Miftari v SSHD [2005]EWCA Civ 982 at [55] to [58]…)…”
“If when the Tribunal reads the Special Adjudicator’s decision there is an obvious point of Convention law favourable to the asylum-seeker which does not appear in the decision, it should grant leave to appeal.”
“… the term ‘refugee’ shall apply to any person who, owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of the country…”
“An appeal under section 82(1) against an immigration decision must be brought on one or more of the following grounds – … (g) that removal of the appellant from the United Kingdom in consequence of the immigration decision would breach the United Kingdom’s obligations under the Refugee Convention or would be unlawful undersection 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 as being incompatible with the appellant’s Convention rights.”
“In my opinion the requirement [sc in the definition of ‘refugee’] that an applicant’s fear of persecution should be well-founded means that there has to be demonstrated a reasonable degree of likelihood that he will be persecuted for a Convention reason if returned to his own country.”
“No contracting state shall expel or return (‘refouler’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”
“It is, I consider, plain… that the non-refoulement provision in article 33 was intended to apply to all persons determined to be refugees underarticle 1 of the Convention .”
“[W[e wonder whether Danian requires further examination. Ought the Refugee Convention to be confined to cases of what might be called ‘real’ need? Does it genuinely require the status of refugee to be given to a person like the Appellant whose claim arises solely from his voluntary and dishonest acts in the safety of the United Kingdom, or to others who, on the strength of this decision, may make an asylum claim purely in order to get the benefit of it? Or are such persons adequately protected by the European Convention on Human Rights, which has been incorporated fully into English law since Danian was decided? That Convention would protect them from the risk of harm that they have voluntarily or cynically chosen to incur, without giving them the benefits of refugee status.”
“50. We are aware that some Government of Zimbabwe agents… have lists of suspected MDC sympathisers in various areas around Zimbabwe. Returnees could be added to such lists, though we have no reports that they have been. We are in any case not aware that such lists are routinely used to intimidate/find people, except around the time of elections. Such lists are most likely used to control food distribution… 51. In the rural areas, it is customary for the local chiefs or village headmen (who are frequently linked to the regime) to monitor new arrivals of any kind. There have been allegations that the recent Government of Zimbabwe crackdown, Operation Murambatsvina, has led to incidents of intimidation of new arrivals in specific areas, but there are no reports of any incidents specific to returnees.”
“However, this is without prejudice to the Secretary of State’s ability to argue the point (ie as to whether Article 3 is intended to protect against forced removal a person who could safely return home voluntarily albeit that he could not be forcibly removed without a real risk of persecution) in a future case.”
“8. There is, of course, now a shorter route to the conclusion that the Appellant is entitled to refugee status in the United Kingdom. As the Secretary of State recognised, the decision of the Tribunal in AA…, which is a country guidance case, might be regarded as leading to the conclusion that the Appellant should in any event be regarded as a refugee… In this appeal as, we understand, in others, the Secretary of State now argues that the country guidance case of AA should not be followed. This appeal therefore provides an opportunity for the Tribunal as presently constituted to give an authoritative view on the arguments being adduced by the Secretary of State. … 11. … The Secretary of State points out that on 14 October… he announced that returns to Zimbabwe had been suspended. He now submits that the suspension of returns to Zimbabwe is an event which took place after the judgment in AA and thus casts doubt on its continued force. That, in our judgment, is simply wrong… 12. In any event, reliance on the Secretary of State’s suspension of returns on 14 October hardly tells the whole story. As we understand the position, returns to Zimbabwe were suspended in the summer of this year as part of the arrangements made for the adjournment of a number of Judicial Review cases before Collins J and the selecting of AA as a test case to be heard by this Tribunal. The fact that returns had for the moment been suspended was part of the context in which the Tribunal heard the case of AA. None of the Secretary of State’s arguments before the Tribunal in AA suggested that the suspension of returns made any difference to the status of the appellant in that case as he stood before the Tribunal. 13. There is, however, a much more general difficulty in the Secretary of State’s argument that a person who would otherwise be entitled to the status of a refugee is not entitled to that status if removal is not threatened. If that were a good argument, there would never be any refugees because the Convention requires (broadly speaking) that refugees are not removed, and the United Kingdom Government’s policy is certainly not to remove them (except where ‘safe third country’ arrangements of various sorts apply). A refugee’s status as a refugee does not depend on the risk that he will be removed: it is a status that he has while he is in the country in which he has sought refuge. It is easy to lose sight of the fact, but almost the whole of the Refugee Convention is concerned precisely with the incidents of that status whilst he remains in the country which ex hypothesi is not the country of his nationality. Reinforcement of that view, if required, can be found throughout the decision of the Court of Appeal in Saad… [2002] INLR 34…”
“… [W]e have reached the view, on the evidence before us, that the process by which the United Kingdom Government enforces the voluntary return of rejected asylum seekers to Zimbabwe exposes them to a risk of ill-treatment at the hands of the CIO.”
“An appellant who has been refused recognition as a refugee but has been granted exceptional leave to remain may appeal under section 8 of the 1993 Act against the refusal to grant him refugee status.”