Several of the Burundian handball players who had been missing since their disappearance in Croatia a month ago have been found in Belgium where they have applied for asylum.
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Several of the Burundian handball players who suddenly disappeared on August 9 in Rijeka, a port city in western Croatia, during the Under-19 World Cup have reappeared after a month of wandering. They applied for asylum in Belgiumreports our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet.
The Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Nicole de Moor, reported on the arrival in Belgium of some of the young athletes. She would not specify the exact number but according to the news agency BelgiumThis is’ ” a large part of the team “.
Disappearance
On August 10, the International Handball Federation announced Bahrain’s 10-0 victory by default against Burundi as part of the Under-19 World Championship held in Croatia.
Read alsoCroatia: 10 Burundian handball players disappear in the middle of the World Cup
It must be said that the Burundian team had only three players left because the ten others had disappeared in the middle of the afternoon from the university residence where they were staying in Rijeka. The police issued a search warrant but apparently the ten young handball players took advantage of the Schengen area, of which Croatia is a part, to leave the country.
A month later, they all resurfaced in Belgium, where there is a large Burundian community. The State Secretary for Asylum and Migration stresses that Croatia is responsible for them since they entered Europe with a Croatian sports visa. Belgium therefore plans to send them back to Croatia.
But the young people would all be minors “ born in 2006 “, according to the Croatian police, which would make it impossible to send them back to Croatia. Those who filed for asylum must be welcomed “, underlined Nicole de Moor, specifying that an age test by bone scintigraphy could be practiced to verify the minority of young men.
Home saturated
In 2022, more than 5,500 Burundians made a first asylum application in an EU country, six times more than in 2021 when there were 951, according to statistics from the European Union Agency for asylum. Last July, Burundi was the third nationality represented in number of asylum applications in Belgium.
“ This transit of asylum seekers to different European countries is exactly what is wrong with European asylum policy commented Ms. de Moor. For months, Belgium has been one of the European countries calling for a better distribution of asylum seekers between member countries, considering ” take part » migratory flows.
In Belgium, the reception network is currently completely saturated. Recently, the country announced the suspension of the reception of single men to favor that of women and children.
(And with AFP)