{"id":4787,"date":"2015-10-15T04:19:03","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T04:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/?p=4787"},"modified":"2015-10-15T04:19:50","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T04:19:50","slug":"eritrean-football-players-seek-asylum-in-botswana-4-hours-ago-from-the-sectionafrica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/2015\/10\/15\/eritrean-football-players-seek-asylum-in-botswana-4-hours-ago-from-the-sectionafrica\/","title":{"rendered":"Eritrean football players seek asylum in Botswana 4 hours ago From the sectionAfrica"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n
\"Eritrean<\/span>
Image caption<\/span>Members of the Eritrean football team in December 2012<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ten players from the Eritrean football team have refused to return home after playing a World Cup qualifying match in Botswana and are now seeking asylum there, officials say.<\/p>\n

The men were detained by police after deciding not to board their plane.<\/p>\n

They are reported to have refused to go home despite the intervention of the Eritrean ambassador in Botswana.<\/p>\n

There have been a number of mass defections by Eritrean athletes in recent years.<\/p>\n

One of the most noticeable was in 2013, when Uganda granted asylum to 15 Eritrean players and their team doctor after they absconded at the end of a football tournament.<\/p>\n

A senior official at the Botswana Football Association says it has yet to establish why the players refused to leave with their team-mates.<\/p>\n

\"Eritrean<\/span>
Image caption<\/span>Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki (left) is accused of running his country with an iron fist<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"RescuedI<\/span><\/span>
Image caption<\/span>Thousands of Eritreans have fled the country in recent months<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However a report in the Botswana newspaper The Voice <\/a>said that the players were distressed about the prospect of joining the Eritrean army and wanted to seek asylum despite being persuaded not to by the ambassador.<\/p>\n

The newspaper reported Botswana Football Association Vice President Basadi Akoonyatse as saying that the Eritrean players were found missing from their hotel rooms early on Wednesday morning by team officials.<\/p>\n

“A report was made to the police who spotted them loitering around Francistown, alleging that they were in search of a Red Cross centre where they could seek assistance to… be accorded asylum in Botswana,” she said.<\/p>\n

Players’ representative Dick Bayford told the Reuters news agency that he had received reports of an attempt to remove the players forcibly from Botswana.<\/p>\n

Eritrea is notorious for human rights abuses, with torture and slavery both reported by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry report<\/a> to be commonplace.<\/p>\n

The country has also been accused by the UN of forcing its citizens to indefinite national service and of killing people trying to escape abroad.<\/p>\n

The Eritrean government dismissed the UN’s findings as “totally unfounded and devoid of all merit”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Eritrea<\/span><\/figure>\n
    \n
  • Nation of six million on Red Sea – one of Africa’s poorest countries<\/li>\n
  • One-party state – no functioning constitution or independent media<\/li>\n
  • Former Italian colony, later formed loose federation with Ethiopia<\/li>\n
  • 1962 – Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie dissolved Eritrean parliament, seized Eritrea<\/li>\n
  • Eritrean separatists – the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front – fought guerrilla war until 1991, when they captured capital Asmara<\/li>\n
  • Eritrea voted for independence in 1993<\/li>\n
  • May 1998 border dispute with Ethiopia led to two-year war costing 100,000 lives<\/li>\n
  • Still no peace settlement – thousands of troops face each other along 1,000km (620-mile) border<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Image captionMembers of the Eritrean football team in December 2012 Ten players from the Eritrean football team have refused to return home after playing a World Cup qualifying match in Botswana and are now seeking asylum there, officials say. The men were detained by police after deciding not to board their plane. They are reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ml_titleColor":"#000000","_ml_titleFont":"Roboto","_ml_titleFontSize":1.1359999999999998987476601541857235133647918701171875,"_ml_titleFontWeight":"400","_ml_titleLineHeight":1.3000000000000000444089209850062616169452667236328125,"_ml_metaColor":"#708090","_ml_metaFont":"Montserrat","_ml_metaFontSize":0.67849999999999999200639422269887290894985198974609375,"_ml_metaFontWeight":"400","_ml_metaLineHeight":0.92000000000000003996802888650563545525074005126953125,"_ml_bodyColor":"#a9a9a9","_ml_bodyFont":"Open Sans","_ml_bodyFontSize":0.84999999999999997779553950749686919152736663818359375,"_ml_bodyFontWeight":"400","_ml_bodyLineHeight":1.1999999999999999555910790149937383830547332763671875,"_ml_wooPriceColor":"#666","_ml_wooPriceFont":"Open Sans","_ml_wooPriceFontSize":0.90000000000000002220446049250313080847263336181640625,"_ml_wooPriceFontWeight":"400","_ml_wooPriceLineHeight":1.270000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingColor":"#000","_ml_headingFont":"Merriweather","_ml_headingFontSize":2.020000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingFontWeight":"700","_ml_headingLineHeight":1.4699999999999999733546474089962430298328399658203125,"_mlglobal_userfontcolors":{"headingColorUser":[],"titleColorUser":[],"metaColorUser":[],"bodyColorUser":[],"wooPriceColorUser":[]},"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nEritrean football players seek asylum in Botswana 4 hours ago From the sectionAfrica - UNITED ERITREA MEDIA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eritrean football players seek asylum in Botswana 4 hours ago From the sectionAfrica - UNITED ERITREA MEDIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Image captionMembers of the Eritrean football team in December 2012 Ten players from the Eritrean football team have refused to return home after playing a World Cup qualifying match in Botswana and are now seeking asylum there, officials say. 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