Eritrea 10 in the dark about their families
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday October 27, 2015 14:50
Abane Ghebremestel of EMDHR told Mmegi that since he got contacts from the lawyers who had an opportunity to meet the players last week, he is still mapping a way to contact the relatives.
“Getting in touch with the families directly in Eritrea is very dangerous because any communications from Gaborone to Eritrea are likely monitored and we do not want to endanger the players lives,” he said.
Ghebremestel further said they will map a way that will get them to communicate with the families without endangering any lives of the two parties who are equally worried as to what could be happening to their kin.
The players’ lawyer, Dick Bayford, who visited them last week told a media briefing on Friday that they would re-visit them this week after they discovered that the Government tried to get the 10 to reject them as their legal representatives. He said last week they failed to get the information they sought because of the government officials’ instruction to the players.
Bayford said the players disclosed how five officials from an unidentified government department met with them and misled them into signing a declaration denouncing the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights, which had instructed the lawyers on behalf of the players.
The faceless state agents allegedly told the players that the two lawyers and the human rights movement were a stumbling block to the smooth processing of their asylum applications.
“The players said they did not want anything to do with us as their legal representatives because we were delaying the processing of their applications and they would rot in jail if they accepted us as their lawyers,” said Bayford.
According to Bayford, in their effort to establish who the officials were through the occurrence book, they discovered that the officers did not register and the DIS are the only officers allowed access without registering.
The 10 asylum seekers were not aware that government had wanted to repatriate them and questioned the wisdom of launching legal action. It was only after Bayford had shown one of the asylum seekers – the team goalkeeper - communication between the lawyers and his sister based in Netherlands that the players began to soften.
Bayford pointed out that, “if the interaction between the players and nocturnal government employees took place after the court order was issued it would be contemptuous and cloak and dagger on the part of the authorities”.
He said since the players’ detention, they have not even changed the kit they were wearing following a game against the Zebras. He said they had no washing or bathing soap and didn’t even have any form of communication with their relatives.