10 footballers from Eritrean national squad seek asylum in Botswana

Ten players from the Eritrean football team are seeking asylum in Botswana, the latest in a series of defections by athletes from a country under investigation by the United Nations for human-rights violations.

One of the most noticeable was in 2013, when Uganda granted asylum to 15 Eritrean players and their team doctor after they absconded at the end of a football tournament.

A group of 10 players from Eritrea's national football team that are claiming asylum in Botswana after a World Cup qualifier have won a temporary reprieve, with a court ruling they shouldn't be sent back home.

"They were then taken into custody for interviewing".

"A report was made to the police who spotted them wandering around Francistown".

Another six fled while in Angola in 2007, and 12 more did the same in Kenya in 2009.

Eritrea is located in the Horn of Africa and borders the Red Sea as well as Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

A report issued by the United Nations human rights Council in June, unveil systematic and widespread gross human rights violations in the country, including extrajudicial killings and torture. The Eritrean Foreign Ministry rejected the report as "totally unfounded and devoid of all merit".

While investigations are still ongoing on why the 10 Eritreans are not excited about going back home, Voice Sport has established that the distressed men face possible treason charges back in their home country.

The players and the coach said thier lives are in danger while without giving details, said Akoonyatse.

This is not the first time for Eritrean players to mass defect while in duty.

"The decision shows that the rule of law in Botswana is on solid ground and we are happy to be beneficiaries of it", Abane Ghebremestel of Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights in Pretoria, said.

The government spies on citizens, and military conscripts are forced into decades-long military service.

"According to Akoonyatse", the Eritrean players were found missing from their hotel rooms in the early hours of Wednesday by team officials".

As well as footballers escaping, fighter pilots have also fled in their aircraft.