Ten Eritrean soccer-football players defect in Botswana

Tigrai Online, October 15, 2015

Yet another ten members of the Eritrean football team defect and they are seeking asylem in Botswana.

Another year another ten members of the Eritrean football team defects and they are seeking asylem in Cborone, Botswana. The Eritrean national team went to Botswana to play a World Cup qualifying match, but ten of the team members would not board their plane to go back to Eritrea. They were arrested by police in the airport and taken to custody.

Dick Bayford, who has been hired by the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR) to represent the players, told Reuters."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," he said.

Defection is a way out of Eritrea legally for most Eritrean diplomats, athletes, and artists without having to cross the dangerous Eritrean borders where there is a shoot to kill order by the government.

Eritrean national football team members have been defecting in mass since 2006. Some years the enire team and supporting staff members defected. As you can see below TOL has published news articles about this difactions in the years past.

One would wonder if the Eritrean people were given a chance to safely get out of their country, how many of them would leave Eritrea?

Judging from what we see in the ground about 95% of the population will scape from the brutal Eritrean regime's grip.

Eight Eritrean football players and their coach defect in Kenya

Tigrai Onlne December 10, 2013

Eight Eritrean football players and their coach defect in Kenya while they were sent to take part in the Cecafa Cup games.

This is becoming a routine for Eritrean football players, they go to participate in international football games and they disappear. Last year it was 15 players and their doctor who defected and asked for asylum in Uganda. after few months the Ugandan authorities granted them political asylum.

In December 2012 the entire 17 Players of the Eritrean national football team have gone missing in Uganda after the team was eliminated in the group stage of the ongoing Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup.

In July 2011, 13 Eritrean Football Players disappeared in Tanzania. Can you see the pattern here?

In December 2009 The entire Eritrean national football team have no where to be found after a match game in Kenya. The Eritrean government agents tried to find the men but no one had any idea where they went. The coach of the team and another government official returned to their country.

Four players scape in 2006 and never came back to Eritrea.

Last month one of the most famous Eritrean singers; Yohannes Tkabo (Wedi Tkabo) and a very successful business man: Dr Tewolde Tesfamariam (Wedi Vacaro) defected. This was a big blow to the one-man-regime in Asmara.

The Eritrean people are abandoning the regime and leaving the country faster than a sinking ship because of the brutal treatment in their own land by the gangs in Asmara.