Eritrean 10 crave for life on the pitch
Innocent Selatlhwa | Thursday March 31, 2016 11:45
“We live in a place with no electricity, we live mostly on sorghum and pap. We want to be able to play and make money so we can afford the food we want to eat and also afford airtime to call our family members,” one of the players told Mmegi recently.
“Please help us, five months without playing football is too much for us, we want to play. We have confronted the Police Station commander and nothing much is happening, they keep promising to help, but it is taking forever,” another lamented.
This however, according to their custodians, will not be easy as there are a number of processes they need to follow.
Dukwi Refugee Camp Settlement commandant Bonang Batekele told Mmegi that for the players to play football, “there should be a club showing interest which will then have to do clearances as per FIFA regulations since the players had teams they were playing for before coming here”.
Batekele said the government is currently focusing on ensuring that they are secure and would be protected if they were to start playing football. “We are monitoring the situation and so far we are pleased that everything is going well here, the government and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) are working together to help them,” he said.
The players refused to board a plane to Eritrea citing fear for their lives following their team’s loss to their Botswana counterparts in Francistown in October last year. They expressed fear that they might be killed if they returned home, especially after others had left. Even though the Minister for Defence, Justice and Security Shaw Kgathi initially said they would not be granted asylum, it was later granted to them and they were taken to Dukwi.