[dehai-news] (New York Times) Eritrean National Team Heads Home, New York Times reporter seems to be dissappointed

November 17, 2011, 11:12 am Eritrean National Team Heads Home Intact By JAMES MONTAGUE <http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/author/james-montague/> James Montague for The New York Times

Athletes are among the few who can leave Eritrea legally. In recent years, soccer players have defected.

KIGALI, Rwanda — The Eritrea national soccer team might have been knocked out of 2014 World Cup qualification after its 3-1 defeat to Rwanda in Kigali on Tuesday, but the team’s management scored a small victory of sorts.

All 18 players on the squad boarded the team bus bound for Kigali airport Wednesday morning and all 18 were on the flight home, a rare feat in recent years.

As described in a recent article in The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/sports/soccer/world-cup-qualifying-in-eritrea-soccer-as-ticket-out.html ,
Tuesday’s match was Eritrea’s first away match since 2009, when 12 members of the national team did not return home after a regional tournament in Kenya. They claimed asylum at the office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Nairobi. Eleven were later granted political asylum in Australia.

“We’ve had no visits at all, no calls, no claims for asylum and their first port of call would have been the U.N.H.C.R.,” said Anouck Bronee, spokesperson for the commission in Rwanda.

Athletes are among the few people allowed to travel abroad from Eritrea, considered one of the most repressive countries in the world. But many Eritrean athletes have used international competition as a way out. In July, 13 players from Red Sea, Eritrea’s top domestic team, refused to return after a tournament in Tanzania. They are currently under U.N.H.C.R. custody appealing a decision by the Tanzanian government to refuse them asylum.

It could be a while until Eritrean athletes compete abroad again. Shortly after the loss in Rwanda, the Eritrean National Football Federation pulled out of a regional tournament in Tanzania later this month, citing financial hardship.

The Eritrean National Cycling Federation also pulled out of Sunday’s Tour of Rwanda. Eritrea was crowned continental champions last week, and its leading cyclist, Daniel Teklehaimanot, won the Tour of Rwanda in 2010. No reason was given for the withdrawal.

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