I've been dealing with refugee claims from Zimbabwe since I was a Refugee Protection Officer with the RPD (more than 17 years ago).
The more things have changed the more they've stayed the same.
The situation in Zimbabwe now, post-Mugabe -and to use a Zimbabwean aphorism is essentially: same taxi, different driver.
You can still succeed with this claim profile, but the claimant must have both knowledge and activism. This threshold likely varies depending on the RPD Member. An excerpt from a recent, successful claim I assisted on:
"numerous questions for 45 minutes. His evidence was repeatedly tested…Questions touched on MDC, his role in MDC, his father's role in MDC, his assistance to his father in the context of an election for a district counsellor for MDC, details on his own participation at the front of a mass protest in … etc."
After the Member found the claimant credible (and the explanations for the gaps in his BoC plausible) then moves on to the documentary information -like the Australian Country Information Report indicating that risk to MDC members is likely higher for those involved in direct political activism. Reference is also made to Human Rights Watch and other corroborative country condition documents that confirms that criticism of the Zimbabwe government is limited in practice and is regularly met with violence and violations of basic human rights and persecution.
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