They arrived on November 12 from Croatia from their country, Nigeria, to play a Pimpón tournament. They lost, but they will save a much more bitter taste than that of defeat. Abia Uchenna Alexandro and Eboh Kenneth Chinedu, students from the Owerri University, 18, have been held for almost a month in Bosnia and Herzegovina trapped in a legal tangle.
The two young people finished their participation in the World Championship between universities in Pula (57,000 inhabitants, northwest of Croatia) and moved to the capital, Zagreb. As they reported Telephone to the British newspaper The Guardian, The night before their departure decided to walk through the streets of the Croatian city. “We left the shelter to walk. Suddenly some agents gave us the stop and asked us for documentation. We tried to explain that our passports were in the shelter and that we had a regular visa, but they did not listen to us,” said Eboh Kenneth Chinedu.
Without giving credit to what was happening to them, the two athletes asked the night patrol police officers who accused them of crossed by illegally: “What is Bosnia?” “We think they were joking,” they say. But it was not the case: the agents, always according to the story of the players, did not allow them to return to their hotel to collect the passports and thus demonstrate their origin, According to the American newspaper The New York Times.
That was the beginning of a nightmare that still continues. In the eyes of the agents the two students were irregular immigrants. A day later, always according to their testimony, several police officers took them in a truck to a border forest and forced them to enter Bosnia and Herzegovina next to a group of Pakistani migrants. Chineduu remembers the scene: “The police ordered us to move around the forest. I refused and begged them once again to verify our situation in the country, but they did not listen to me. They kicked me on my back and told me that they would shoot me if I did not move.” Before, as they declared The New York Times, They stole their clothes and all their money and forced them to walk at gunpoint.
In Bosnian territory the two young people were locked in a field of seclusion with thousands of migrants who live in plastic stores without any service and with temperatures below zero degrees. Only a few days ago, when their history was released worldwide, the two African athletes were transferred to a government center in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. Meanwhile, the authorities of that country and the Croats discuss which of them you have to take responsibility for African athletes.
Dragan Mektić, Minister of Bosnian Security, accused the neighboring country of having forcefully displaced the two young people to their territory and committing illegal acts, according to Al Jazeera. For the Bosnian authorities the two athletes are a problem, because technically they have become irregular immigrants in the country. “Respecting legal procedures, we now have to take them back to Croatia. It is obvious that they have Croatian visas, which are in Bosnia and Herzegovina illegally,” said Mektić.
The Ministry of Interior of Croatia has rejected the testimony of the Nigerians. He considers it inaccurate and contradictory, and ensures in a response to NOW that none of the agents destined in irregular immigration tasks acted against them. But the International UN Migration Organization has another opinion: after verifying the documentation, he found that they had a valid visa until December 3. They remained, therefore, regularly in the country they, as they say, had traveled to participate in the competition. The championship organizers attest to it.
While the ball goes from one state to another, the two young people are already more than a month away from home. On a trip in which they lost a championship and freedom.
