'Missing' African Olympians may be after new life
Published August 15, 2012
Associated Press
LONDON Thousands of Olympians have returned to their homelands with the
end of the London Games but more than a dozen African competitors have
not.
Even before the closing ceremony, some athletes from impoverished or
conflict-ridden nations including Cameroon, Eritrea, Guinea and the Ivory
Coast had been reported missing from the athletes' village.
The London Games are not the first time such reports have surfaced: There is
a well-established pattern of sportsmen trying to use international
competitions in foreign countries as springboards to a better life.
Athletes attending the London Olympics have the legal right to stay in
Britain until November under the terms of their visas, but one of them has
already declared that he intends to seek political asylum in Britain.
"I still very much love my country and it's the harsh conditions and lack of
basic human rights which has compelled me to seek asylum," Eritrean
steeplechase runner Weynay Ghebresilasie, 18, told The Guardian newspaper in
an interview published Wednesday.
Ghebresilasie, who finished 10th in his first-round heat and did not
advance, told the paper that he has become disillusioned with the worsening
political conditions in his homeland. He said he's not alone: Three of his
fellow Eritrean teammates, out of delegation of only 12 athletes, have also
sought asylum but are reluctant to go public because they fear their
families may get into trouble back home.
Eritrea was among the top ten countries of origin for people seeking asylum
in the U.K last year, along with Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iran, according to
the London-based charity Refugee Council. The northeastern African country
also has a past record for missing athletes: In 2009, an entire Eritrean
national soccer team defected during a tournament in Kenya to escape their
country's repressive conditions.
The report followed confirmation Tuesday from Salamata Cisse, head of Ivory
Coast's Olympic delegation, that three members of the Ivorian delegation
went missing last week. She said they included two swimmers, Frank Olivier
and Brou Kouassi, and Assita Toure, who went missing on Aug. 8, and a
wrestling coach, Yves Olivier Adje, who went missing Aug. 9.
Last week, Cameroon's Olympic team asked for help from London officials to
look for seven athletes who left the athletes' village after they finished
their games. Its press attaché, Emmanuel Tataw, said this has happened
before to squads competing in Melbourne and Athens.
"Most of the time they don't come back," he said. Cameroon, a predominantly
French-speaking nation of 20 million in west central Africa, is among the
poorest nations on earth.
According to African media, other missing athletes include three from
Guinea, as well as judo competitor Cedric Mandembo and three others from the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, 20 members of the Sierra Leone
team went missing from their camp before the end of the competition. Similar
reports of visa overstays and asylum applications surfaced during the Sydney
Olympics in 2000.
Britain's Home Office would not comment on the reports, saying it does not
speak about individual cases.
Experts say it is too early to tell what will happen to the athletes who
have gone missing they may overstay their visas, apply to become a
refugee, or they may well return to their countries before their visas
expire.
"Visitors to the U.K. are able to travel the country without restrictions,
so providing Olympic athletes have a valid visa at the moment, it would be
premature to suggest that any have absconded," said Carlos Vargas-Silva, a
senior researcher at the Migration Observatory at Oxford University.
But he said once in country, it is difficult to track people who decide to
overstay their visas.
Donna Covey, the Refugee Council's chief executive, said that Britain must
protect people who can proof they need shelter from conflict because it has
signed the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention.
"It a tragic fact that many people competing in the Olympics come from
countries around the world where they are at risk of human rights abuses,
conflict, and violence," she said. "Over the last two weeks, we welcomed the
world to the U.K. for the Olympics, so we must now also uphold our proud
tradition of offering safety to those fleeing persecution."
______
Associated Press reporters Robbie Corey-Boulet in Abidjan, Ivory Coast,
contributed to this report.
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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