The two Niger Alexandro Abia and Kenneth Eboh were defeated at a recent table tennis tournament in Croatia and days after their defeat, they were arrested by the police, robbed of their money and clothes, and deported at gunpoint to a unknown country, says a report in New York Times.
They are both students at the Federal University of Technology Owerri in Nigeria and had entered Croatia legally in November to participate in the tournament held in Pula, an ancient city on the Croatian coast. After suffering an early defeat, the duo decided to make the most of their visa by visiting Zagreb, the Croatian capital.
However, on their last night, they were arrested by the police and were accused of entering the country illegally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the country to Croatia's south.
"We said: What is Bosnia? We thought they were joking," Eboh said.
Later, the police officers also refused to let the two players fetch their passports from their hotel and the following day, they drove them to a forest next to the Bosnian border at gunpoint.
"They said: 'You go Bosnia, go, go. I said: 'Go where? I'm not from Bosnia.' But he brought up his gun and said he would shoot me," said Eboh.
As per the two Niger, their mobile phones were also seized.
( With inputs from IANS )