Zimbabwean hunger striker hospitalised

A Zimbabwean hunger striker has been taken to hospital in a "very serious condition" after refusing food for 36 days.

Teacher Mqhubel Timbha, 28, began a hunger strike on 2 June in protest against the lifting of a Home Office ban on forced deportations to Zimbabwe.

He was joined by at least 50 countrymen and women at the height of the protest. The Home Office today said that nine Zimbabweans in detention remained on hunger strike. Many were bailed from custody last week and remain on hunger strike at home, campaigners said.

A second hunger striker, who has not been named, was transferred to hospital on Saturday, his solicitor said.

The Home Office confirmed the pair were in hospital but said there were "no concerns" over their health.

Mr Timbha was being held in the medical unit at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre, near Heathrow, when he was examined by a doctor on Friday.

Dr Frank Arnold said: "He was sufficiently ill that, on the strength of my report, the Home Office accepted that he needed to be taken to hospital by ambulance.

"The patient was too weak to stand unaided when I saw him. I had to lift him onto the couch to examine him myself. He was extremely light and his muscles were very wasted.

"Despite his extreme weakness and inability to walk unaided, or perhaps at all, the centre manager required that he was handcuffed in transport to the hospital.

"It was only after the forceful intervention of Kate Hoey MP that the restraints were removed. He is still being watched, at considerable expense to the public, by guards who refuse to leave his room and give him some privacy.

"I have serious concerns, not about the competence of individual doctors and nurses working at the centre, but that an uninformed decision by the centre manager can overrule medical priorities."

Mr Timbha claims he is an opposition Movement for Democratic Change activist and that he and other members of his family were detained and beaten by President Robert Mugabe's regime.

Dr Arnold said Mr Timbha's condition was "wholly consistent" with a five-week hunger strike.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said in a statement on Wednesday that none of the hunger strikers needed hospitalisation and added: "Food is available to all hunger strikers and they are seen daily by a medical practitioner to check their condition."

Mr Timbha was transferred to Homerton University Hospital, east London, on Friday where he has begun to eat again under medical supervision.

A Home Office spokesman said today: "Two of the hunger strikers are currently receiving care in hospital. This is purely a precaution and there are no concerns over their health at all."

Solicitor Jovanka Savic said an application for Mr Timbha to be released on bail would be heard by an immigration judge on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Bail for Immigration Detainees said 10 Zimbabweans secured their own release from detention in a mass bail application last week.

A Home Office spokesman said today that, of 83 Zimbabweans in detention, nine were refusing food.

Meanwhile, campaigners say Zimbabweans continue to be taken into custody, indicating that the Government intends to deport them.

Last week, High Court judge Mr Justice Collins called on the Government to halt deportations to Zimbabwe until a court sitting on August 4 rules whether it is safe to return failed asylum seekers. In the first three months of this year, 95 Zimbabweans were deported.

- THE INDEPENDENT