Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team Denied UK Entry

by Jordan Yerman | July 15, 2010 at 07:52 am

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Iroquois Nationals' Haudenosaunee Passports Not Accepted by UK

The Iroquois Nationals were meant to play their first game in the World Lacrosse Championships on July 15, but they remain in North America.

The team travels with a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Nation) passport, which had been accepted by some other nations in the past. However, the UK is not accepting the passport.

However, the State Department did not include a letter guaranteeing that the Iroquois Nationals would be allowed to return to the USA; a similar requirement was made for the players traveling from Canada. The American and Canadian governments made a special dispensation and vouched for the players, but Britain still refuses to issue visas for the team.

The Iroquois invented Lacrosse. However, the Nationals have already had to forfeit their first game, and they may miss out on the entire tournament.

The dispute has made its way to the United Nations and drawn in U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose last-minute effort to vouch for the team’s U.S.-born players did not placate British officials.

The players refuse to carry Canadian or American passports, as they identify as part of the Haudenosaunee nation. This has not been a problem for over 30 years, until barcode-based and RFID passports became the norm. After first saying that extra paperwork would be required, the UK is now turning around and saying that only Canadian or US passports will do.

Iroquois travellers have long been able to cross international borders with the existing version of the passport, as a courtesy extended by the country they are visiting. But since the terrorist attacks in New York, Mr. Deer said passport holders have been coming up against greater resistance from immigration officials.