The World Game, Australia
December 17, 2009
A senior Kenyan government official says the 12 Eritrean national team players who defected claim they cannot return home because they will be killed.
The players say they swore an oath to the Eritrean government before leaving the country that they would not defect, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to release the information.
The official said on Wednesday that the 12 have applied for an asylum seeker’s pass, the first stage in a long vetting process to determine if they deserve refugee status. The process could take up to three months.
The 12 failed to board a plane from Nairobi with the rest of Eritrea’s squad on Saturday after having competed in the Senior Challenge Cup.
