Why not seek asylum in South Africa?

I love it when someone asks a  "bleedin' obvious"  question that,  somehow,  seems not to have occurred to anyone else.

David Vance,  of A Tangled Web,  asks why so many Zimbabweans seek asylum in Britain,  when free and democratic South Africa is just over the border.  After all, it's a long flight to the UK but only a short hop into the welcoming arms of Thabo Mbeki.   

So what's that all about then?

Comments

[David Vance]

Steve,

It's a truism but sometimes the best questions to ask ARE the most simple ones! I listened to all the hand-wringing and intricate talk of asylum treaties and current practises and then simply thought - but why don't they just nip across the border to Mbeki-land?

I have yet to hear one UK politician ask that question so self-absorbed are they! The UK should NOT BEAT up on itself here, it should question what is going on in South Africa. But then again, South Africa is above criticism in sme quarters.

[Ken]

I can think of a few reasons, actually.

1) South Africa is pretty dangerous itself. I know one guy who lived there whose first instruction was "if you are involved in a hit-and-run, don't stop, or you die too"

2) Thabo Mbeki is one of the biggest apologists for Mugabe on the planet.

3) Many Zimbabweans have a UK passport; if they don't, then the chances are they'll have friends and/or family over here anyway.

[Jarndyce]

How about this, Steve: when you're shit scared of being beaten up or worse by Mugabe's thugs, you don't hop next door over the border to a country whose president doesn't give a crap about your plight.

[Steve]

Er, that's what I meant by Mbeki's welcoming arms, Jarndyce. The point being that we talk about SA as if it is a free and democratic society, when it shares a lot of characteristics with its despotic neighbours.