Zimbabwean family challenges deportation

LONDON, April 7 (UPI) -- Britain's High Court says it will give a Zimbabwean mother and her two daughters more time to challenge a deportation order.

Priviledge Thulambo, 39, and her daughters Valerie, 21, and Lorraine, 19, were granted permission Monday to bring a judicial review of the Home Secretary's decision to deport them, The Times of London reported Tuesday.

"I can't believe it, after all I have gone through. This has given me hope," said Thulambo.

The three women said they fled Zimbabwe to avoid persecution after fraudulently obtaining Malawian passports. Priviledge Thulambo arrived in Britain in June 2002 and her daughters followed in the next couple of years.

Priviledge Thulambo maintains her late husband, a supporter of Zimbabwe's opposition movement, was tortured by supporters of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu party.

A lawyer for the British Home Secretary called the story "wholly fabricated," the Times reported.