Brazil grants refugee status to two Cuban athletes
BRASILIA -- (AP) -- Brazil granted refugee status Friday to two Cuban athletes who fled their country's delegation at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro in July, a government official said.
The status was conceded to handball player Rafael Dacosta and cyclist Michel Fernández García, said Luiz Paulo Barreto, secretary general of the Justice Ministry.
The decision was approved by the eight members of the National Committee of Refugees, linked to the ministry, Barreto said.
The ministry said the two will receive Brazilian identity papers and will have access to government services including health and education. They can legally get jobs, hold bank accounts and receive government legal protection.
Barreto said the two cannot leave Brazil without the government's permission. They can apply for Brazilian citizenship after six years.
After abandoning the Cuban delegation in Rio, the two were seen briefly in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city, and then dropped out of sight.
They are the second pair of Cuban athletes to abandon their delegation during the games.
Two-time Olympic bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux and 2005 welterweight world champion Erislandy Lara left the athletes' village on July 22 and failed to appear for their weigh-ins. They were arrested 11 days later for overstaying their visas and sent back to Cuba.
The two told the Communist Party newspaper Granma in Havana that they didn't intended to defect. But a German consulate functionary in Brazil said they had applied for visas to enter Germany, and German boxing promoters said they had signed the pair to five-year contracts.
