Eritrean 10 trusted Botswana government - Makgonatsotlhe

He told The Monitor that despite the global hullabaloo that ensued when a South Africa-based Eritrean Human rights NGO and local lawyer Dick Bayford applied to Court to interdict Botswana government from deporting the football players, the government had, from the beginning, handled the matter legally and procedurally.

“On the contrary, we actually followed due process from day one, not because of any court action; as soon as the Eritrean 10 had presented themselves to Francistown Police, the process of interviewing them one by one started, and the Refugee Advisory Committee (RAC) among which sits a representative of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was alerted and it started its work also,” Makgonatsotlhe said.