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Phiri has a 5-month old baby with his Zimbabwean customary wife based in Leeds (his wife was granted refugee status in 2009)

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LEEDS, UK - Shadreck Phiri, a subservient but well-known Zimbabwean who was seized by UK immigration authorities 2 weeks ago is earmarked for deportation to Malawi tonight Thursday, 11th February 2010.

He is being held at Brookhouse IRC (a detention centre at Gatwick). Phiri claimed asylum in the UK after travelling on a Malawian passport he acquired to escape the tough visa regime in Harare in February 2004. He holds no other authentic Malawian documents.

The Home Office has a policy of not returning asylum seekers directly to Zimbabwe, but most of those refused a safe haven in the UK end up there after initially being sent to Malawi. The UK Home Office is trying to use the technicality Phiri is a ‘Malawian citizen’ based on his passport of entry, despite all documentary evidence proving his Zimbabwean nationality.

Further to this, Phiri has a 5-month old baby with his Zimbabwean customary wife based in Leeds (his wife was granted refugee status in 2009), the Home Office has refused to acknowledge this relationship, denying Phiri a right to family life and a bond to his son.

Shadreck Phiri arrived in the UK in February 2004 when he managed to flee for his life after speedily purchasing a Malawian passport he used to travel to the UK, and claimed asylum. The Malawian passport he travelled on bore the name Godfrey Sisya, a name the Home Office has since referred Mr Phiri as throughout his asylum application process.

Shadreck Phiri presented documents to prove his Zimbabwean nationality to the Home Office including his original Zimbabwe metal national registration ID card; original Zimbabwe passport, Zimbabwean birth certificate; Zimbabwean school certificates; original MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) Zimbabwean card; original bank card, original Zimbabwean voters card, his mother’s Zimbabwean identity card and his parents marriage document.

He has siblings who all have Zimbabwean documents, all these documents show that Shadreck is, and remains, a Zimbabwean citizen. In spite of all this evidence, UK Immigration Judges have found that Shadreck Phiri is Malawian because he travelled on a Malawian passport. No attention seems to have been given to his many documents proving his Zimbabwean citizenship.

Since the news broke of Shadreck Phiri’s detention his wife has received countless solidarity phone calls from all over the UK protesting his detention. Phiri endeared himself to the Zimbabwean MDC community of West Yorkshire by taking part and participating in numerous meetings and gatherings in the Wakefield and Leeds areas.

Shadreck has been both a victim of the Zanu regime and the UK Home Office, he must be released now so that he can continue his work for Zimbabwe, to enable him and his fellow Zimbabweans eventually to return and help rebuild the new Zimbabwe. Sending him to Malawi will automatically lead to imprisonment and onward deportation to Zimbabwe.

The Home Office has not proved that Malawi (whose president is a close friend of Robert Mugabe) will not extradite Phiri to Zimbabwe for his MDC involvement. This is an injustice. A petition calling for his immediate release has being signed by fellow MDC members and his Zimbabwean friends and colleagues. The UK government should listen and believe he is a Zimbabwean because he is a Zimbabwean!!

Frantic efforts to try and prevent his deportation are under way.  He will not be spared from torture and obvious detention once he gets to Zimbabwe. Through Shadreck, we have managed to track down the legitimate Malawian passport holder (living in Zimbabwe), whose document he used to enter the UK, as listed in column 2 below.

This gentleman has subsequently acquired another passport from Malawi (duplicated), as listed in column 3 below. We would challenge the Malawian authorities to dispute the information below, and hence the existence of duplicate passports. (Nehanda Radio)

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