Eritrean football players refused to return home after playing a qualifying match in Botswana

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Apollo

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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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The men were detained by police after deciding not to board their plane.
They are reported to have refused to go home despite the intervention of the Eritrean ambassador in Botswana.

There have been a number of mass defections by Eritrean athletes in recent years.
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.

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

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Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki (left) is accused of running his country with an iron fist.
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Thousands of Eritreans have fled the country in recent months.

However a report in the Botswana newspaper The Voice 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.

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.
"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.

Players' representative Dick Bayford told the Reuters news agency that he had received reports of an attempt to remove the players forcibly from Botswana.
Eritrea is notorious for human rights abuses, with torture and slavery both reported by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry report to be commonplace.
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.
The Eritrean government dismissed the UN's findings as "totally unfounded and devoid of all merit''.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34534975

While we took the L for our players playing in Ethiopian shirts, at least they didn't try to claim asylum in African countries.:mjlaugh:
 

Bielsa

Free Wi-Fi > Free Palestine
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34534975

While we took the L for our players playing in Ethiopian shirts, at least they didn't try to claim asylum in African countries.:mjlaugh:

Yep. Eritrea have been taking Ls on that for years now.

Eritreans abroad will tell you how great Eritrea is but won't admit that Erirea has one of the highest number of migrants leaving a country in recent years (not refugees).

Eritrea is run by a regressive regime and that's why we see a mass exodus of Eritreans form their counry.

It's sad because it's a beautiful country.
 
@bandit

You were flaming on Eritrean players for seeking asylum from their oppressive regime. Don't you find it unethical or immoral to hold the players against them for their situation which they have no control over?
 

Freebandz

MONEY TEAM
@bandit

You were flaming on Eritrean players for seeking asylum from their oppressive regime. Don't you find it unethical or immoral to hold the players against them for their situation which they have no control over?
Are you off your meds I didn't even make one comment about them I just asked you to take your self hating bs somewhere else:childplease:
 
Am I lying that Somali national football is shit? Fucking Niger beat us, a country that's poorer than Somalia. z3zrULC
 

Freebandz

MONEY TEAM
Am I lying that Somali national football is shit? Fucking Niger beat us, a country that's poorer than Somalia. z3zrULC
Read the thread title does it say anything about somalia?
We already have a shitty thread for this topic I didn't read it I have no interest discussing it either in this thread:uCkf6mf:
 
S

Shamis

Guest
Isaias Afwerki is the worst African dictator still in power. If he banned mandatory national service, put a time limit on national service or even tried to pay people for their efforts I'm sure that Eritrea would have no genuine asylum cases. His people would rather starve for decades in concentration camps in Sudan than go back to their own country.

NB I say concentration camps because they aren't allowed to travel within Sudan, go to school, university or find paid work. They live on meagre and unreliable handouts from the UN to survive. This is a country in peacetime, he should be ashamed of himself.
 
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Bielsa

Free Wi-Fi > Free Palestine
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Here in Denmark the government have accepted Eritreans into the country cos they are fleeing an oppressive regime. Bearing in mind they have rejected plenty of Somali applicants because Somalia is not considered as dangerous as it once was.

That's how bad it is in Eritrea that Eritreans would rather live in refugee slums in Sudan and face the most horrific human right abuses rather than go back home.
 
In other news..


Shambles walahi, I've played with and witnessed better amateur Somali's on a Sunday league. They seem to be missing physical balance and coordination, you see the defenders stumbling creating unnecessary dangers.

They better conditioning and proper diet.
 

HalyeeyQaran

Citizen of Southwest State
Isaias Afwerki is the worst African dictator still in power. If he banned mandatory national service, put a time limit on national service or even tried to pay people for their efforts I'm sure that Eritrea would have no genuine asylum cases. His people would rather starve for decades in concentration camps in Sudan than go back to their own country.

NB I say concentration camps because they aren't allowed to travel within Sudan, go to school, university or find paid work. They live on meagre and unreliable handouts from the UN to survive. This is a country in peacetime, he should be ashamed of himself.
Eritrea is still in a state of war against Ethiopia so no the country isn't in peacetime.
 
S

Shamis

Guest
Not really. They have a border dispute and on occasions it looked like they were going to go into war but it never happened.
 

HalyeeyQaran

Citizen of Southwest State
Well, technically, that's what being in a state of war means. North and South Korea are in the same predicament but obviously their hostility is much more important on a global scale. They have border skirmishes to this day.
 
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