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Elderly Britons given help to leave Zimbabwe
Anna Davis18.02.09
HUNDREDS of Britons are to be offered government assistance to leave Zimbabwe as conditions there deteriorate.
Ministers are concerned that many who are elderly or vulnerable are unable to make the necessary arrangements for a return to the UK.
About 750 households are expected to take up the offer which will operate in the next 18 months and will be open to anybody over 70 or with medical needs.
Zimbabwe's health system is collapsing under the worst cholera outbreak it has experienced. Nearly 3,400 people have died from cholera since last August and more than 68,000 are infected, according to the United Nations.
At the same time, Zimbabwe's inflation is at the stratospheric rate of 231million per cent and there are acute food shortages with about seven million dependent on foreign handouts.
Local government minister and Wentworth MP John Healey said: "The situation in Zimbabwe continues to make it hard to access food and medical care. That's why we are offering help to older and vulnerable British people who are unable to support themselves in Zimbabwe and want to resettle in the UK."
Reader views (4)
How dare anyone criticise our government assisting Britons to return here from Zimbabwe? They are our grandparents, our great aunts, our cousins, any of whom have worked hard all their lives, most farming land to feed us through imports to Britain. Now that Mugabe and his henchmen have made such a mess of a once rich, once well governed and once successful economy, of course the british government should help our families return. The UK has suffered millions of free-loaders entering this country for decades, time to look after our own for a change.
- Thomas, London
Why are we offering to help people that left the UK and turned their backs on it.
Only to need help now its turned sour, they stopped paying in years ago.
Leave them in Harare.
- D Simpson, Ilford
Every British person in Zimbabwe who wants to be repatriated to the UK should have the opportunity, not only the over 70's or people with medical needs. We give enough help and assistance to non British people to settle in this country and I do not see why in this case citizens resident in Zimbabwe should be means tested in this way.
- Patricia, LONDON
I hope they are afforded the full package of benefits we give to asylum seekers, but I somehow doubt it.
- Jane Bewick, London
