The Swedish Migration Court denied seven Cape Town soccer players travel documentation because their unabridged birth certificates do not contain their biological fathers` details. 

Getty Images. Seven teenage soccer players from Camps Bay FC could miss out on a trip to Sweden after the Nordic country denied them visas. The Swedish Migration Court denied them visas because their birth certificates do not have their biological fathers` details. The club appealed the denial at the Migration Court of Appeal and was again denied.

Seven teenagers who play for Camps Bay FC could miss out on competing in Sweden`s upcoming Gothia Cup youth soccer tournament after the government denied them visas. 

The Swedish Migration Court denied the players` travel documentation because their unabridged birth certificates do not contain their biological fathers` details. 

The club then appealed the decision at the Migration Court of Appeal, but learnt on Monday that the appeal had also been denied. 

Club chairperson Gina Isserow told News24 that the Swedish government required both parents` consent to grant the travel documents, which prejudiced seven teenagers born to and raised by single, unmarried mothers. 

Isserow said after the Migration Court`s decision, some mothers obtained affidavits from their children`s fathers consenting to the trip. 

The players are meant leave the country on Thursday for the tournament that will kick off on Saturday and return on 24 July. 

On 7 June, the club applied for an order with the Western Cape High Court which authorised the teenagers` trip to Sweden under the temporary guardianship of the club`s head coach, Mogamad Anees Abbas.

The court order included a teenager whose father is a foreign national who had absconded and was untraceable. 

The court ordered that the mothers had full parental rights and responsibilities to consent to their children`s travel.

It said:

The minor children are granted authorisation to travel to Sweden on 13 July and return to the Republic of South Africa on 24 July to participate in the Gothia Cup soccer tournament in Gothenburg. The biological mothers of the children have parental rights and responsibilities for obtaining all travel documents, including visas, and shall include their consent for their minor children to travel to Gothenburg, Sweden.

An appeal letter from the lawyers representing the teenagers addressed to the Swedish Embassy and Migration Court stated that, for children born out of wedlock, it was not compulsory for both parents to appear in a child`s birth certificate.

It said where the children`s best interests were concerned, the high court superseded the biological parent`s authority as the upper guardian of all minors.

Isserow said the teenagers play in the Under-13, Under-14 and Under-16 teams.

She said it was unfortunate that the seven could miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent South Africa abroad. 

`It is heartbreaking because none of these boys has ever been overseas, let alone represented South Africa overseas. We don`t know what to say to these kids. They have been training for 18 months. They worked hard and we`ve raised the funds. It`s not a matter of funding but an issue of the visas, even though we have a high court order,` said Isserow.

Camp`s Bay FC executive committee member Fiona Hart told News24 that this was not the first time the Swedish government had denied players visas.

She said the Club had exhausted all avenues for assistance without success and they would seek a permanent solution after this year`s tournament.

Hart said:

This happened last year as well, and we need this to be addressed because this is a tournament [the players] are invited to by Sweden. They need to find a way to not make it discriminatory for single mothers. We had to go to the high court and they still didn`t accept. We`ve lost all the flights and money [spent in preparation to get the players to Sweden], but it`s also about the children.

Immigration lawyer Gary Eisenberg said the visa denial may reflect the Swedish government`s distrust of South Africa`s judiciary.

`How do you punish a child with one parent? Maybe the one parent absconded and left the other to deal with the child, which is common in many countries. Their visa denial may reflect a jaundiced view of the Swedish government on South African high court orders.` 

Nombuso Mashangu, the mother of one of the teenagers, said she travelled to Johannesburg from Cape Town to clear the consent issue with her child`s father, who consented via an affidavit. 

Mashangu said she hoped the situation would change in favour of the teenagers, as her son `eats and breathes soccer`.

`These boys have been practicing and it would be disappointing if the others don`t go. I have been praying and I don`t know what it is, but I haven`t said to him `you`re not going`,` she said.