By Toby Prince
Ten members of the Eritrea national team known as the Red Sea Boys have refused to travel home after their World Cup qualifier with Botswana at the weekend.
Eritrea is a small country in the Horn of Africa which gained Independence in 1991 from Ethiopia following a 30-year armed struggle, with a population of around six million.
The nation which is south of Sudan, has been plagued by political instability, poverty and civil unrest in recent time.
Botswana is a mid-sized country with a population of just over two million, located in the South of Africa – boarded by South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
A non-governmental Eritrean organisation has said that 10 players did not board their plane home after the match because they were seeking political asylum.
Dick Bayford, a human rights lawyer representing the Pretoria-based Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights revealed that the players did not arrive at the airport.
He said: “I have been engaged by the movement to assist in keeping the football players in the country after they received reports that there was an attempt to forcibly remove the players from Botswana.
“About 10 football players from the country declined to board a plane home … (Wednesday) morning, stating that they needed political asylum.
“They were then taken into custody for interviewing.”
Botswana won the match 3-1, claiming a 5-1 aggregate win in the first stage of qualifying for the 2018 finals.
