Elderly Britons Given Lifeline Out of Zimbabwe

www.timesonline.co.uk

February 18, 2009

United Kingdom

Hundreds of British citizens are being offered a resettlement package to leave worsening economic conditions in Zimbabwe and move to Britain, The Times has learnt. 

The emergency measure to fly people out of the country comes as increasing numbers of residents approach the British Embassy in Harare asking for help to leave. 

Up to 1,500 elderly and infirm Britons are expected to take advantage of the British Government's “Zimbabwe Resettlement Programme”. Letters outlining the offer of help were sent to elderly, vulnerable and infirm citizens ten days ago and have already drawn responses from people keen to take it up. One elderly person described the deal as a “lifeline”. 

The offer is focused on helping the most vulnerable to leave the increasingly desperate conditions in Zimbabwe's collapsed economy. 

Britain is acutely sensitive as to how the resettlement offer will be viewed by Zimbabwe's new unity government. It is emphasising that it is a humanitarian move driven by a collapse in the country's infrastructure, which is hitting the elderly and sick the hardest. 

John Healey, the Local Government Minister, said yesterday: “The situation in Zimbabwe continues to make it hard to access food and medical care. That's why we are offering help to older, vulnerable British people who are unable to support themselves in Zimbabwe and want to resettle in the UK.” 

Whitehall has been planning the operation for months and officials said it was a coincidence that the timing of the offer came as the new unified government took power. It will be some months yet before the first group arrives. 

“We have put in place this programme, which is available to older and vulnerable British citizens and British nationals with the right of abode in Britain,” a Whitehall source told The Times. 

“We do not think Zimbabwe is about to blow up and that it is time to head for the hills but life is getting tougher for the vulnerable.”
 
The source added that the new Zimbabwean Government, whose Cabinet met for the first time yesterday after Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change was sworn in as Prime Minister, could not be expected to put right the collapse of Zimbabwe's infrastructure overnight. 

Under the programme, which is being co-ordinated by the Communities Department, people returning from Zimbabwe will be offered housing, state benefits and support. Ministers are preparing to waive the rules on residency tests to allow people to claim housing and council tax benefit on arrival. 

The programme is available to British citizens over 70 who are living in residential or nursing homes in Zimbabwe and to younger people in need of social care who live in their own homes. 

They will be interviewed by British officials in Zimbabwe and will be allowed to bring spouses and partners with them. 

There are an estimated 12,500 British citizens in Zimbabwe, of whom 3,000 are over 70. The Government believes that only between 500 and 1,500 will be eligible for the scheme, which will run over the next 18 months. 

Under the terms of the scheme, the British taxpayer will pay for flights to Britain and a hotel stay until permanent housing can be arranged. Some of the returning Britons will be found places in nursing or care homes with the State meeting the bill if, as is likely, they cannot afford to pay. 

Those who can manage on their own will go into social housing or rental accommodation with the help of housing benefit. They will be provided with furniture and other household goods as the scheme does not include funding the return of furniture. There will be no help with transporting pets to Britain. 

The Britons will be eligible for state benefits, subject to a means test, and will be offered a support worker to help them settle. 

The scheme, which will be means-tested to ensure that the Government does not fund the return of wealthy people, will apply only to those permanently resident in Zimbabwe for five years or more. 

The means-testing will not include a person's fixed assets, such as their house, as the Government believes that most people will find it difficult, if not impossible, to sell property in Zimbabwe's present economic conditions. 

Ministers have not ruled out chartering an aircraft to fly groups of elderly people to Britain but for now they are looking at using scheduled commercial flights. 

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