Eritrean football team seeks asylum in Botswana

“They were then taken into custody for interviewing”.

Eritrea is notorious for human rights abuses, with torture and slavery both reported by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry report to be commonplace.

Eritrean soccer players who defected from their homeland, sought asylum in Kenya in 2009 and eventually wound up in Australia, in their new Australian club colours.

But according to the team’s officials, 10 of the players, who are now seeking asylum in Botswana, refused to board the plane home despite the intervention of the Eritrean ambassador in Botswana.

In 2012, a few Eritrean team members sought asylum after taking part in the CECAFA tournament in Tanzania and Uganda. “I learned that when life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, life gives you a hundred reasons to laugh”, he said of his escape and subsequent resettlement.

Ten players from the Eritrean national football team are reportedly seeking asylum in Botswana after playing a World Cup qualifier in the Southern African country.

BFA Vice President Basadi Akoonyatse confirmed the players and their head coach disappeared from their hotel rooms in Francistown, Botswana’s second largest city situated a few 430km north of the capital city Gaborone in Wednesday morning.

Reports indicate that the Eritrean government has banned its citizens from traveling to all foreign countries.

Eritrea has a history of absconding whenever they are on national duty.

The country has withdrawn or abstained from several recent global football competition due to the frequent defections.

In June, a year-long United Nations inquiry found that the Eritrean government was responsible for “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations that have created a climate of fear”.

While investigations are still ongoing on why the 10 Eritreans are not excited about going back home, Voice Sport has established that the distressed men face possible treason charges back in their home country.

In the past, the Eritrean government has sought a “deposit” from athletes travelling overseas in a bid to ensure their return.

The players are being represented by human rights lawyer Dick Bayford, who works for the South Africa-based Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights.