Botswana has granted asylum to 10 Eritrean footballers who sought refuge in the country after playing in a qualifying match for the 2018 World Cup in October, their lawyer said Wednesday.
Dick Bayford said Botswana's secretary for justice, defence and security, Augustine Makgonatsotlhe had informed him that “the footballers were granted political asylum this afternoon (Wednesday).”
The Pretoria-based Eritrean Movement for Democracy and had filed a legal challenge to the Botswana government's move to deport the players.
The players had refused to return home after playing against Botswana's national team, in a game they lost 3-1 in Francistown on October 13. They then claimed political asylum.
They had been held at the Centre for Illegal Immigrants in Francistown, Botswana's second largest city.
Bayford said the players would be transferred to Dukwi Refugee Camp, about 180 kilometres outside Francistown, in the country's north-east.
Eritrean footballers have repeatedly sought asylum while playing abroad, and all foreign travel is restricted for citizens from the country, which has been severely criticised by the UN for rights violations.
In 2012, 18 Eritrean players claimed asylum in Uganda after a match there. Another six fled while in Angola in 2007 and 12 more did the same in Kenya in 2009.
A June report by the UN human rights office described systematic and widespread “gross human rights violations” in Eritrea, including mass incarceration of political opponents, extrajudicial killings and torture.
The Eritrean government dismissed the report.
AFP
* E-mail your opinion to [email protected] and we will consider it for publication or use our Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.w