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

[Apollo]

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 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.

Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki (left) is accused of running his country with an iron fist.

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.

 

[Unionist]

In other news..

 

[Bielsa]

In other news..

Look how much bigger, stronger and faster they are than our skinnies. That 4th goal the guy just bulldozed his way through the right flank with speed and power.

 

[Bielsa]

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.

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.

 

[Freebandz]

In other news..

Can you stop derailing the thread with your self hating bullshit
I literally avoid every self hating bullshit threads you people make now here you are bring it to this thread

 

[Unionist]

@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]

@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

 

[Unionist]

Am I lying that Somali national football is shit? Fucking Niger beat us, a country that's poorer than Somalia.

 

[Freebandz]

Am I lying that Somali national football is shit? Fucking Niger beat us, a country that's poorer than Somalia.

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

 

[HOW CAN SHE SLAP?!?]

Eritrea must be really bad.

 

[Shamis]

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.

 

[Bielsa]

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.

 

[John Michael]

I think this guy is modelling himself after MSB AUN, except more extreme.

 

[freeAgent]

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]

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.

 

[Shamis]

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]

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.