Eritrean footballers disappear after international match in Kenya
Twelve members of national side go missing and presumed to be hiding in bid to escape authoritarian regime in Asmara
- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 December 2009
The Eritrean national team before the start of the match against Tanzania, which was held in Nairobi. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
They are presumed to have joined the tens of thousands of Eritreans who flee their country each year to escape an increasingly paranoid and repressive regime. The disaffection is particularly strong among young people who face decades of open-ended national service once they leave school.
The players absconded after losing their quarter-final match 4-0 to Tanzania in the annual CECAFA tournament for east and central African nations.
Nicholas Musonye, the general secretary of CECAFA, said a guide assigned to the team reported that 12 members of the 25-strong national side had vanished.
"The tour guide waited for them in vain at the airport on Saturday when the team was [due to travel] back home," he told Reuters.
"We think they are hiding somewhere with the intention of going somewhere, or just intending to remain here. We have alerted the authorities to help track them down."
There has been no word from the Eritrean government, which routinely denies that people are fleeing the country. But Musonye said that Tesfaye Gebreyessus, the president of Eritrea's football association, had confirmed the players did not return to Asmara with rest of the delegation.
It is not the first time the country's sporting stars have sought asylum abroad, despite a reported government policy that requires athletes to post a bond of several thousand US dollars each time they travel overseas.
In 2006, four members of the Red Sea football club disappeared in Nairobi after playing an African Champions League qualifier.
Last year, six runners representing the formidable Eritrean national athletics team were granted political asylum by the Home Office when they slipped away from government minders after competing in the World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh.
The sports stars' flight echoes a wider trend that has turned Eritrea, with a population of just 5 million, into the second biggest source of asylum seekers in the world. Since exit visas are difficult to obtain, many young men and women risk their lives trying to escape on foot through harsh terrain to Sudan and Ethiopia.
President Isaias Afewerki's insular government, which has abolished the free press, political opposition and religious freedom, often punishes the escapees' families with large fines or jail terms.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/15/eritrea
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