OSAKA, Japan — The soccer player’s plane was at the gate. The athlete, Ko Pyae Lyan Aung, had come to Japan with Myanmar’s national team. Several times, he had tried to break away from the team and claim asylum, and each time he had been caught. When an agent waved him forward and asked for his passport, he presented his phone instead. On it was a message in English and Japanese: “I don’t want to go back to Myanmar.”The gambit worked.

Source: International New York Times July 03, 2021 10:52 UTC