Ten Eritrean football players seek asylum in Botswana

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

Ten Eritrean national football team players have sought political asylum in Botswana after playing at a qualifying match for the 2018 World Cup, a Motswana official said Friday.

Batswana police detained the Eritrean players after they refused to return to their home country after playing the match Wednesday, Akoonyatse Basadi, vice president of the Botswana Football Association, said in a statement Friday.

Akoonyatse said that the footballers were sent to a police station in Francistown city.

The South Africa-based Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR) organization defended the rights of 10 athletes to seek asylum and urged Batswana authorities to not expel the footballers.

This is the sixth time that Eritrean players have refused to return to their home country after participating in tournaments abroad.

In 2008, eight players of the Eritrean Olympic team also sought political asylum in Edinburgh, Scotland.

In 2009, 12 others defected during the qualifiers for the CECAFA Cup, a tournament involving the countries of Central and Eastern Africa, in Kenya. Two years later, in 2011, the entire Eritrean national team sought political asylum in Kenya.

In 2012, some Eritrean team members sought asylum after taking part in the CECAFA tournament in Tanzania and Uganda. Six Eritrean players also escaped after a match in Angola in 2013.