Seven African Swimmers Seek Asylum in Australia

by Archive Team

26 June 2007, 03:03pm

MELBOURNE, Australia, June 26. OVERALL, seven African swimmers defected from their teams during the FINA World Championships held in Melbourne, Australia in March, according to a report in The Age today.

Reporter Dewi Cooke states that, "Three competitors and one official from Burundi, two swimmers from the Republic of Congo and one swimmer from Sierra Leone are believed to have lodged asylum applications."

According to the article, the seven swimmers joined, "40 Commonwealth Games athletes and officials from Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Bangladesh and Tanzania," who have applied for asylum in Australia recently.