Harare — BRITAIN and its Western allies' hypocrisy in dealing with Zimbabwe has once again been exposed.

Last week, British Immigration Minister Phil Woods announced that London was looking at resuming enforced returns of failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe because the country was now safe following the formation of the inclusive Government.

Zimbabwe has always been a safe place to live even before the inclusive Government came into being.

What has improved under the inclusive Government is the economy following the introduction of the multi-currency system but the security of citizens and visitors in Zimbabwe has always been guaranteed.

Zimbabwe is safer to live in than certain countries where some of its citizens have fled to seeking asylum on trumped-up allegations of political persecution.

As we have argued before the so-called asylum seekers are economic refugees who were fleeing the meltdown in the local economy spawned by the illegal sanctions imposed by the West at the behest of the MDC.

Is it not ironic that most of the failed asylum seekers claim to be MDC supporters who are running away from a harsh environment created by their own party?

It is also a fact that some of the asylum seekers were not even members of the opposition but just Zimbabweans who were so determined to leave home and try their luck overseas where the pastures have turned out to be not that greener after all.

Others were criminals who skipped the country to evade the long arm of the law.

More than 6 500 Zimbabweans have applied for political asylum in Britain over the last three years. Around 925 were granted refugee status, while around 4 500 had their applications for asylum rejected.

It is estimated that in the past decade almost 11 000 Zimbabweans have sought asylum in Britain but the majority of the applications have been rejected.

This high rate of rejections simply shows the majority of the asylum seekers were faking persecution at home just to live in Britain.

This bids Zimbabweans not to speak ill about their country or exaggerate certain situations for personal gain.

Illegal diamond dealer and businessman Newman Chiadzwa's apology to the nation for peddling falsehoods about activities at the Chiadzwa diamond fields should be a lesson for those bent on soiling the country to line their pockets.

Newman lied to a Kimberley Process fact-finding team that there were State-sponsored human rights violations at the Marange diamond fields.

At a KP meeting in Namibia on Tuesday, he bemoaned the fact that despite his retraction, still the so-called human rights activists, Western media and the NGO sector that ran with his story when he made the falsehoods would not believe him.

We hope he realises how difficult it is to undo such damage.