Refugee caught up in extradition row
Hakeem Al Araibi
T
he business of football
can be brutal at times.
Yet the game can also
be a force for good.
This was underscored
by the case of little-
known player Hakeem
Al Araibi, a refugee who got caught up
in an extradition tug-of-war between his
native Bahrain, Thailand and Australia.
Al Araibi’s story starts with the Arab
Spring protests, during which he was
accused of vandalising a police stationHeadliners
in Bahrain in 2012. In his defence, Al
Araibi says he was playing in a Bahraini
Premier League game for Al Shabab at
the time of the alleged crime – a claim
supported by fact that the match was
being shown live on TV.
Despite this, he was sentenced by
Bahrain to 10 years in jail in absentia
after he fled to Australia, where he
was granted refugee status in 2017.
A trip to Thailand in November 2018
was supposed to be a honeymoon
holiday with his wife. Instead, it turnedinto a nightmare.
An Interpol “red notice” – initially
thought to have been raised in error by
Australia – alerted Thailand to his travel
plans, even though he had protected
status as a refugee. A statement from
the Australian Embassy in Thailand later
confirmed it was Bahrain that had issued
the notice, on November 8.
And so, despite having checked with
the Australian authorities that he was
safe to travel, Al Araibi was arrested on
arrival in Bangkok and detained for overHome...Craig Foster
(left) greets Al Araibi
at Melbourne Airport