White Zimbabweans try for Australia

At least 1,000 white Zimbabweans had sought police clearance to migrate to Australia by the weekend, since last year when the country was hit by a wave of violence, Reuters has reported. Quoting the state-controlled ‘Sunday Mail’, the agency said Clive Puzey, an influential member of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was among hundreds of people who had applied for the mandatory police clearance for Australia. Puzey said his application was exploratory.

Australian embassy and Zimbabwean immigration officials were not available for comment, the report said, but Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed that police had processed “numerous requests from whites and other people”. “Since last year we have processed 1,005 applicants,” he was quoted as saying. Harare-based foreign missions said thousands of Zimbabweans, most of them black, had legally or illegally gone to settle in Western Europe, Australia and South Africa in the past year to look for jobs, political and social stability or a higher standard of living.