Asylum-seeking Djibouti footballer spends week in airport

A member of Djibouti’s national football team has spent a week in transit at an international airport in France after seeking asylum in the European country.

Nassrodin Aptidon is one of three asylum-seeking Djibouti internationals who went missing at Paris’s Orly airport last Friday as the team travelled for a 2022 World Cup qualifier viaFrance.

Aptidon’s two colleagues – Bilal Hassan and Aboubakar Elmi – received clearance to leave the airport from French authorities on Wednesday following a meeting the goalkeeper had to miss because of a short illness.

He is expecting to hear shortly if he can leave the transit zone at the airport, where he has spent the last seven days and nights.