Caracas, July 28 (EFE). Venezuelan opponent Orlando Vieira-Blanco, Juan Guaido’s representative in Canada, asked the North American country on Wednesday to host fellow boxer Eldrick Sylla, who competed in Tokyo 2020 as part of the Olympic refugee team. An athlete and cannot return to Trinidad and Tobago, where he resided, due to the expiration of his passport.
“We have reported that we (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) have formally asked UNHCR to activate humanitarian resettlement protocols so that our fellow Olympic boxer Eldrick Sylla (24 years old) can be received in Canada,” Vieira Blanco wrote on Twitter. the account.
For this reason, he urged this entity to “promote the process of a decent life” for Silla.
According to the boxer’s father, Edward Sylla, to VPI’s online channel, the UNHCR “was looking for a country that would receive” his son, because Trinidad and Tobago, where he has been residing since 2018, is refusing to grant him a visa because of this. His passport is expired.
“The government of Trinidad and Tobago says they don’t have a valid document to grant a visa because the document is not valid,” said Sylla Sr.
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, accused the UNHCR of ideologically “using” Sela against the Caribbean country because, in his words, “he is not a refugee” and “no one is persecuting him”.
Arreaza said, who accused the United Nations Office (UN) to work for political interests and “without austerity.”
Silla, 24, is one of 29 refugee athletes participating in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The boxer fell to Yuri Sedenho in the first round at middleweight on Monday.
The Venezuelan arrived in Japan thanks to the efforts of the Commission, the International Olympic Committee and the granting of a US visa. EFE
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