Passports withheld by UK Embassy
More bureaucratic troubles are upsetting Team Colombia’s riders in the view of Giro d’Italia, and not only that. In fact, the UK Embassy in Italy did not return their passports to the Colombian riders, who had filed for UK Visas – with a urgent procedure – on April 10th and 14th. Claudio Corti’s team was supposed to fly to the Tour of Turkey tomorrow, April 25th, but now the team’s participation to the race is seriously at risk.
“We accompanied 8 riders to Rome on April 10th and 14th – Claudio Corti explained – and paid a significant extra-charge for the urgent procedure that should have guaranteed our passports would be returned within five days. Instead, the UK Embassy still holds the documents, without giving us any motivation, and in spite of the great comprehension and solidarity showed by Tour of Turkey’s Director Ahmet Ozgan, we might be forced to skip this race.”
Unfortunately, the uncertainty looms well beyond the Tour of Turkey: “Right now, we do not know where our riders’ passports are – whether in the Embassy’s offices in the UK or travelling somewhere – nor we can predict when they might be returned. It is an absurd situation, that might even jeopardize our Giro d’Italia participation”.
Adro (Italy), April 24th 2014
