December 19, 2009

You know things are bad in Eritrea when an entire soccer team flees the country first chance they get. The national soccer team traveled to Nairobi, Kenya for a regional tournament. After a match against Tanzania, the team plane returned to Eritrea, but none of the players were on the plane. The players went into hiding in Nairobi and then contacted the U.N. refugee agency, which directed them to file asylum applications at Kenya's Immigration Ministry. This isn't the first time players from the national team have fled Eritrea. Six players defected three years ago after a match in Tanzania.

Eritrea is the second biggest source of asylum seekers in the world; second only to the total from Zimbabwe. Eritreans are fleeing for a number of reasons including political repression, food shortages, open-ended military service, and a dying economy.

Eritrea's information minister told the BBC that the players should return home and they would get a "good welcome", despite "betraying" their country. Why do I doubt they'd get a "good welcome"?! Human rights groups have said that failed defectors and critics of the president's government are often tortured and kept in shipping-container prisons in the desert. The government denies the allegation. Natch. (Full Story)