For days, the Croatian police have been searching for ten young people , the entire Burundi Under-19 handball team, who disappeared from Rijeka (Fiume) after arriving in Croatia to participate in the men's handball world youth championship. The championship was scheduled in four Croatian cities, including Rijeka, from 2 to 13 August.
According to the information available so far, the youngsters, born in 2006, left the student center in Rijeka, where they had stayed for the entire duration of the championship, on 9 August.
They were due to play one last match against equals from Bahrain, which was later cancelled.
They are untraceable: the hypothesis is that they have been planning their "escape" for some time, to secretly reach France, Germany or other Northern European countries where they can ask for political asylum. Since January 1, Croatia has joined the Schengen area and there are no longer border controls.
(Unioneonline/D)
