To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate his Department has made of the number of white Zimbabwean farmers who have been deprived of their land in each of the last five years. (273109)

The majority of white Zimbabwean farmers were evicted from their land between 2000 and 2002, during which period farming organisations in Zimbabwe estimate that numbers fell from between 5,000-6,000 to approx 2,000. Since 2002 the rate of evictions has slowed. Many of the remaining farmers have been forced to keep a low profile, so maintaining accurate records of farm ownership has been challenging for farming organisations. However, they estimate that approximately 700 white Zimbabwean farmers have been evicted since 2004.