Dozens of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers, who claimed they were in danger of being ill-treated if deported, won a temporary reprieve in London's High Court yesterday. Mr Justice Collins ruled that a judicial review of the Home Office's decision to return four people should be allowed to go ahead, but then adjourned any substantive hearing on the understanding that the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal would look at fresh evidence about conditions in Zimbabwe in the autumn.

The plan, aired in court and accepted by the Home Office and the Refugee Legal Centre, is that a test-case, involving a failed Zimbabwean asylum seeker, will be presented to the AIT in either September or October.