UNHCR concerned for Cuban asylum seekers

UNHCR has expressed concern at the plight of two dissident Cuban doctors reportedly been detained in Zimbabwe after seeking asylum in a third country.

The two, Leonel Cordova Rodriguez, 31, and Noris Peña Martinez, 25, were taken from their home by armed soldiers in the capital, Harare, on Friday afer allegedly denouncing the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, and bundled aboard a flight to Johannesburg.

As officials accompanying them tried to get them to board a Paris-bound Air France flight for an onward journey to Havana, Cuba, a hastily written note was passed to an airline employee. Diplomats said they believed the two doctors were returned to Zimbabwe after the airline refused to take them on
board.

Oluseyi Bajulaiye, UNHCR representative for Zimbabwe, said the two doctors were believed to be in police custody in Harare, although he and other UNHCR officials had not seen them. UNHCR was negotiating access to them and the police have denied detaining them.

"I am rather concerned about the way that their asylum application has been handled so far," Bajulaiye said. UNHCR officials said Zimbabwe was required under national and international law not to deport them until their case could be heard.

"They should have access to due procedures and availed of the opportunity to present their case to the eligibility committee of the Zimbabwe government," a UNHCR spokesman told IRIN on Wednesday. "We are concerned about the principle of the two being able to have access to normal procedures."