Four Cuban players begin Spanish asylum process

Four Cuban players begin Spanish asylum process
Published on Thursday, August 20, 2009

MADRID, Spain (Reuters) -- Four Cuban basketball players who failed to
turn up for their squad's flight home from the Canary Islands this week
have begun the process of seeking asylum in Spain, the local government
said on Wednesday.

Georvis Elias Sayus, Grismay Paumier, Taylor Garcia and Geofry Silvestre
will now have to wait 30 days for a response from the Spanish
authorities, according to a spokesman for the islands' government.

Cuban athletes regularly abandon their national squads on trips abroad,
often seeking the lucrative professional contracts they are denied at home.

Baseball pitcher Aroldis Chapman went missing from a tournament in
Rotterdam in July and three cyclists stayed on in Mexico after competing
in a recent event there.

The Cuban basketball squad had traveled to the Canary Islands for a
series of friendly fixtures and lost 94-57 to Spain in Las Palmas on Friday.

Caribbean Net News: Four Cuban players begin Spanish asylum process (20
August 2009)
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/article.php?news_id=18335