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CBC News: Refugee soccer players stuck in Canada
Posted in: In the News by Kate Weersink on August 1, 2010
(CBC News, August 1, 2010)
An Ontario soccer team made up of refugees is scrambling to raise cash and secure visas for several players who are worried they’ll miss a youth soccer tournament in England this week.
When members of United FC in Hamilton showed up at Pearson airport Friday to catch an Air India flight to London, eight of them were told they didn’t have the necessary documents for the trip. Another 10 boarded the plane.
Coach Leo Johnson, who stayed behind, said most of the players had their boarding passes in hand when they received the bad news.
“Someone came running down to us from the airline saying some of the guys could not travel because they needed visas with their documents,” he told CBC News on Sunday. “So we had to divide the team into two, which was very painful.”
Coach Mark Sinke travelled to London with the players who managed to get on the plane.
Johnson is now trying to make arrangements to allow the rest of the team to travel, but that means raising thousands of dollars in a matter of days.
“We have been working the phone lines with travel agents and airlines and right now we are down to [raising] $5,600,” he said.
Johnson said all the paperwork and money must be in place by Tuesday if the players are to leave Wednesday as now planned.
Johnson told the Hamilton Spectator that months ago, the coaches sought advice from the British consulate in Toronto and other organizations about which documents were needed for the trip, but they were given incorrect information.
The team is stocked with young players from 11 countries, including Ghana, Liberia, Mexico, Ethiopia, Sudan and Afghanistan. Every player except one moved to Canada to escape troubles in their homeland.
Read the CBC News article here
