Ethiopian runners: 3 found, but question of asylum still unanswered

Police found three of the four missing Ethiopian athletes in Beaverton on Monday afternoon, saying they're safe and staying with acquaintances. A fourth remained missing.

The University of Oregon Police Department said police had found Amanuel Abebe Atibeha, a 17-year-old boy, and Dureti Edao and Meaza Kebede, two 18-year-old women.

Zeyituna Mohammed, 18, remained missing, but she was not believed to be in danger, department spokesman Kelly McIver said in an email. "We need to have positive confirmation of her safety in order to clear the missing-persons case," he said. 

The four runners were reported missing Saturday morning from the IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene. Though speculation swirled that they intend to seek asylum, the UO could not confirm that. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services office in San Francisco said the agency does not identify asylum-seekers.

The case attracted national attention Monday, with developments reported throughout the day. Though it is not uncommon for athletes from impoverished nations to seek asylum during high-profile competitions, the case is unusual for Oregon. 

The UO department said all four runners are in the U.S. legally, though it did not say when their visas expire. The other 26 members of the Ethiopian team left for home Monday morning, UO spokeswoman Julie Brown said.

The department said late Monday afternoon that it had closed its case on the athletes found in Beaverton but was still treating Mohammed as a missing person. Earlier in the day, the department asked that anyone with information call 541-346-2919. The department said it was leading the investigation with help from local, state and federal agencies.

President Vin Lananna, president of TrackTown USA, the group that lobbied to bring the meet to Eugene, said his staff notified officials at the International Association of Athletics Federation as soon as they learned that the athletes were missing.

"We feel confident that they are all safe, which is really all we were concerned about," Lananna said before any were found.

A total of 970 men and 710 women, all ages 20 or younger, competed in the six-day meet. Ethiopian athletes won three gold and three silver medals, tying for third with Great Britain and Russia for total medals won.

If the four do seek asylum, the process is a long one that starts with an application available online, attorney Anna Ciesielski of the Oregon Immigration Group said Sunday. "It's definitely months in the making," she said.

Ethiopians make up the third-largest group granted asylum in the U.S. in 2012, according to the 2012 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics put out by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Statistics.

The U.S. granted asylum to 1,122 people from the East African nation, putting them behind only Egypt and China. In all, the U.S granted 29,484 people asylum in 2012, up from 24,873 in 2011.

No information was available Monday on why the four Ethiopian athletes left their team.

Betre "Peter" Tesfu, who runs Bete-Lukas Ethiopian Restaurant in Southeast Portland, said he called around to other native Ethiopians after hearing the news, but no one knew anything.

Tesfu, who immigrated to the U.S. 22 years ago, said he guessed that the athletes might be seeking grander exposure as athletes. On the other hand, he said, their reasons could be entirely different.

"The coin," he said, "has two sides."

--Ian K. Kullgren 

Dana Tims, Bryan Denson and Wendy Owen contributed to this report.