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Mass players defections have happened before. Image
source: eritrieadaily.net
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Ten players from the
Eritrean football team are seeking asylum in Botswana, the latest in a series
of defections by athletes from a country under investigation by the United
Nations for human-rights violations. The Eritrean national team was in Botswana to
play a World Cup qualifying match. The players refused to board their plane
home on Wednesday and were detained by police, 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.
