BA halts Zimbabwe deportation

British Airways has refused outright to accept a Home Office directive to fly a deportee from Gatwick to Zimbabwe, it was disclosed yesterday, as ministers gave their first hint that they are preparing to halt the expulsion of that country's failed asylum seekers.

The hint comes amid rising fears that deportees face arrest by President Robert Mugabe's secret police.

It also emerged yesterday that Home Office officials have suspended the expulsion from Heathrow of another Zimbabwean asylum seeker.

Although the department said there was not going to be "a suspension of removals at this point", the official statement stressed that ministers acknowledge that the situation in Zimbabwe has deteriorated and are monitoring the situation very closely.

The shift represents a softening in tone compared with the line taken last week when the two planned deportations were being finalised.

Ministers have the power to halt the deportation of rejected asylum seekers - some with links to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change - if they officially declare Zimbabwe to be a "country in upheaval". The power was used twice by former home secretary Jack Straw. Many of those sent back to the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, from Britain have had their asylum applications rejected on the basis of an outdated country assessment. There have been claims that some have been arrested or attacked on their return to Zimbabwe, while others have gone into hiding.

Yesterday the Home Office said: "We do recognise that genuine Movement for Democratic Change activists may well merit asylum."

Downing Street later said that Tony Blair had discussed the situation in Zimbabwe with South African president Thabo Mbeki on Saturday.

BA's refusal was in defiance of a directive to put a deportee on the 9.15pm Harare flight on Friday. The airline invoked its power to refuse if it sees "reasonable grounds" under the 1971 Immigration Act.

Yesterday a BA spokesman said: "We felt there were reasonable grounds and so the man did not board."

It was claimed that the planned Heathrow deportation, on the same day, was suspended because the Home Office received new evidence from the asylum seeker's lawyers.

Over the weekend the UN refugee agency lent its support to those urging the British government to suspend deportations to Zimbabwe.

"The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is gravely concerned about the serious human rights violations in Zimbabwe," said Anne Dawson-Shepherd, the agency's UK representative.

"Those who have sought asylum in the UK should be offered a safe haven and all deportations stopped. Their return to Zimbabwe under current circumstances could seriously jeopardise their physical safety, their liberty and their life."

The UNHCR said the Mugabe government had sanctioned extra-judicial executions, hostage taking and torture, and targeted violence in the run-up to the presidential elections in March.

Its plea has been endorsed by Amnesty International, which complained that immigration officers had ignored the recent intensification of attacks on opposition supporters, and the daily deterioration in the situation, when rejecting applications from Zimbabwean refugees.

The Refugee Council has also called for the home secretary, David Blunkett, to take immediate and urgent action and the shadow home secretary, Oliver Letwin, is pressing him for an all-party meeting this week to discuss the issue.

In a further statement, a Home Office spokesman said: "We are aware of the concerns expressed internationally about events in that country. We will grant asylum to those who have well-founded fear of persecution."