The Tibet Women’s Soccer team has been denied visa by the United States Embassy in New Delhi. The women’s soccer team, which was going to represent Tibet at the Dallas Cup as the first Tibet team on US soil, was rejected by the US Embassy without any explanation.
The organizer of the Tibet Women’s Soccer, Cassie Childers, wrote that about $5,000 (Rs 330,000) had been spent for the visa application process.
Childers said that the US Embassy asked the individuals in the team about what position they played in and then ‘flatly” rejected their visa by saying that they ‘have no good reason’ to visit the United States.
“Almost one year ago, I received a phone call out of the blue from a footballing legend named Gordon Jago. Gordon was the closest thing to a fairy godfather a girl like me could ever have. In one phone call, he offered to bring an entire team of Tibetan women to the Dallas Cup, the most important BOYS soccer tournament in the world, every penny sponsored. Ten days in Dallas, treated like the queens that they are, crowned with the opportunity to lead the opening day parade into the Cotton Bowl stadium under the Tibetan flag, and the honor being the first sports team of any sex to represent Tibet on US soil,” Childers wrote on the fundraising platform.
Evidently bemused at the embassy’s reaction, Childers stated: “If a revolutionary women’s soccer team, the first of their kind for Tibetans, can’t get a tourist visa to attend a very prestigious soccer tournament as VIP, legit guests, then WHO, may I ask, DOES DESERVE A VISA?”
With travel restrictions becoming more constricting in the United States, a more careful scrutiny of immigrants is being observed. After Trump’s travel ban policy, the US State Department’s extra-screening process has spelled major problems for people travelling to the US.
It may also be believed in this regard that China might have played a hand in provoking the rejection of the Tibetan Women’s Soccer team. Though no reports of direct intervention have emerged, it is undoubtedly wary of Tibetan women participating in the prestigious cup.
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