A New Claim for Asylum: No Olympic-Sized Pools at Home

Claims for asylum are supposed to be based on a well-founded fear of persecution at home. That persecution can be political — dissidents opposed to Putin, and Iranians opposed to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei — or religious: think of Christians now trying to leave Syria or Iraq. It can also be based on ethnicity, such as black Africans being murdered by Arabs in the Sudan. Now a Congolese swimmer, who took part in the Paris Olympics and stayed on in France afterwards has come up with a new reason for requesting asylum in France, having nothing to do with any kind of persecution.

More on his story can be found here here: “New refugee scam? Join an African Olympics team and then disappear into Europe during Olympic Games,” Remix News, March 18, 2025:

That means he wants to remain, and train, in France right up until the Los Angeles Olympic Games begin in July 2028.

The athlete, who is the former DRC champion in the 50m crawl and 100m crawl, is openly staying in Rennes, where he is currently training Monday through Friday.

“I met a Congolese man at the Gare du Nord (in Paris). He told me about the city of Rennes, and said, ‘There, you’ll find enough modernized facilities to continue your sporting career.’”

The athlete said that he refused asylum seeker benefits and that resulted in him being forced onto the streets.

“At first,” he said “I found myself on the streets like a homeless person. I even ended up in tents.”

Some citizens living in Rennes “came to his aid,” according to French media outlet RFI. In addition, a French lawyer Félix Jeanmougin, who also works in the sports industry, got him on social welfare for asylum seekers. The paper described it as a “sign of hope.”…

In other words, the Congolese swimmer, having deliberately remained in France after his Olympic-games visa had expired, is now in France illegally. He nonetheless manages to receive social welfare benefits — housing, medical care, and an allowance for food, all paid for by French taxpayers.

He now wants to obtain refugee status in France; however, there is no indication that he was fleeing war.

It is unclear whether his claim will go through; the process will take at least six months to a year.

It may also set a precedent. if approved, other athletes from Africa and the Middle East may simply decide to stay in European countries with the expectation that their asylum application will be approved.

If he is granted asylum, it will set a terrible precedent. He faced no persecution in his home country. He wants to stay in France, a country for which he has no special affection or affinity, only to take advantage of its Olympic-sized pools. Were the French government to let him remain, what other reasons might those claiming refugee status invoke?

How about these:

A young man from Burkina Faso who wants to be a jockey, but, alas, there are no racetracks in his country. Come to think of it, there are no racehorses, either. So he wants, naturally, to be taken in as a refugee in France, or Great Britain, or any country in Western Europe that has the horses, the racing stables, the racetracks, the competitions. Why deprive him of his chance to do what he wants? Who are we to deny someone who, through no fault of his own, was born in the wrong country for what he wants to do?

A young lady from Togo who was chosen to be Miss Lomé in 2022 now wants to fulfill her dream since childhood of becoming a movie star, and feels she is ready for her close-up, but alas, her country has no film industry. She has taken a boat, loaded with many other Africans, that sailed from a Libyan port across the Mediterranean. In the middle of the sea, the rickety boat began to sink, but fortunately, the passengers were picked up by an Italian coast guard vessel and taken to the island of Lampedusa, then transferred to a camp at Ostia Antica, just outside Rome. Her clam is simple: “I want to be a movie star, and there is no possibility of that in Togo. I need refugee status to remain in Italy, with its flourishing film industry. Cinecittà, Fellini, Loren, Benigni, all that. So please don’t send me back.”

A man from Bangladesh has studied German literature while at university in Dhaka, but, alas, upon graduation discovered that there were no academic or industry jobs in Bangladesh where he could pursue his studies. He would like to be given refugee status in Germany, so as to be able to continue his work in this field.

And so on, and so idiotically forth.

France must turn down the Congolese swimmer’s request to be accorded refugee status. Not being able to train in a certain sport, or to pursue a certain career, because of a lack of proper facilities in one’s country of origin, does not rise to the level of persecution. Refugee status must be granted only when there is a well-founded fear of persecution, that could result in impoverishment, or imprisonment, or death. Having to train in a 33-meter pool in the DRC rather than a 50-meter pool in Rennes does not meet anyone’s definition of persecution.