THE hostile reception that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai received from Zimbabwean exiles in the United Kingdom demonstrated that people in the Diaspora fear that they will be forced to return home if things normalise in the country, analysts said last week.

Tsvangirai was forced to cut short his speech by hecklers at Southwark Cathedral in London after he declared that there was peace and stability in the country and called on the exiles to return so that they can play a part in the country's recovery process.

Many of the estimated five million Zimbabwean economic refugees scattered all over the world claimed that they were victims of political persecution in a desperate bid to be granted refugee status.

But analysts said although there was a significant number of Zimbabweans who were forced out of the country by marauding Zanu PF militias in the past decade, most of the exiles were seeking a better life abroad.

Thousands, especially in the UK, were denied asylum and might be deported back home if the political situation continues to stabilise.

"Some people came here and have been waiting for the determination of their applications for asylum to this day," said Brilliant Mhlanga, a Zimbabwean academic based at the University of Westminster in London.

"This means that by pronouncing those statements, Tsvangirai immediately dented their chances of ever being granted asylum."

He said the majority of Zimbabweans in the UK used the asylum card although it was known that they were economic refugees.

"Their greatest fear has been imagining how they will fit into a society they had long shunned and never even imagined going back to," Mhlanga said.

"This implies that by pronouncing those statements Tsvangirai was making it dawn in their minds and stating a reality for many that some day they will have to return to Zimbabwe, a thing they will never wish to do."

Minister in the Foreign Office, Mark Malloch- Brown, shared the same sentiments in an interview with BBC's Radio 5 Live when he said although it was true that some Zimbabweans were frustrated with the pace of reforms back home, the hecklers had other motives.

"I think there was a lot going on in that church meeting and it wasn't just a commentary on Morgan Tsvangirai's performance in Zimbabwe," he said. "It had a lot to do with asylum and refugee issues as well."

Two campaign groups -- Zimbabwe Vigil and Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) -- that were fingered by Tsvangirai's supporters in the UK for embarrassing the Prime Minister have distanced themselves from the episode.

The heckling marked one of the lowest points in Tsvangirai's three-week visit to the United States and Europe where he won praises from world leaders including US President Barack Obama for trying to lead the country out of its long running political and economic crisis.

However, some Zimbabweans were not happy that Tsvangirai went out of his way to defend Mugabe and for downplaying continued human rights violations.

Zimrights director Okay Machisa said the heckling was a reflection that Zimbabweans were not happy that Tsvangirai appeared to be doing public relations for Mugabe who is still resisting change.

"Even as Tsvangirai was in the West trying to promote the unity government, the state media back home were busy vilifying him," Machisa said.

"There are so many issues happening on the ground such as farm invasions that are undermining the global political agreement.

"The cabinet boycott by MDC-T ministers was itself an indication that things were not moving in the right direction and as human rights defenders we are concerned that the political parties are not respecting the GPA."

But Mhlanga argued that the exiles were just giving excuses to remain outside the country instead of helping in the reconstruction efforts.

"If people are genuine in seeking a lasting solution to the cause of Zimbabwe, surely they must not put any price tag or condition for returning to build a country that they claim to love so much," he said.

"We can now clearly see that Tsvangirai, much as he genuinely uttered those statements, is beginning to lose a lot of friends who are feeling threatened by the fact that his statements have made the reality of their temporal sojourn obvious."

Statistics on the number of Zimbabweans who have left the country are not available but analysts put them at over three million.

A number of professionals migrated in search of greener pastures while others escaped the high unemployment rate in the country now estimated at over 95%.