As Turkmenistan tightened foreign travel, their national Women's Volleyball team are now unable to come to Maldives.

The Turkmenistan team had informed they would be absent from the Central Asian Volleyball Association's (CAVA) Women's Volleyball Championship held at Maldives yesterday as they did not get permission to travel.

It was previously decided that they would be flying into Maldives today.

Volleyball Association Maldives (VAM) and CAVA President Mohamed Latheef said that Turkmenistan told them that they would be unable to participate in the championship.

It was previously decided that the championship would begin tomorrow, with it now set to start on Saturday. Previously, Turkmenistan and Bangladesh were set to play on Saturday.

Maldivian team coach Mohamed Nadheem stated that the Turkmenistan team had told them they had conducted various trainings in preparation for the championship.

As Turkmenistan stepped out of the championship, the CAVA Cup will now see format changes. The four teams will undergo a round robin stage, with the two teams that win the semi's playing in the finals.

The Turkmenistan government has taken drastic steps last year and this year to withhold basic freedoms from its people. Their citizens have been stopped from leaving the country as their political opposition members had left the nation seeking asylum in other countries.

As per media reports, the other reason why those steps have been taken against the public is because of Turkmenistan's workers and citizens fleeing as migrants to other countries and settling. Central Asian news organization Eurasianet stated in May that the issue of people leaving Turkmenistan due to basic rights being narrowed has been on the rise.

"People from Turkmenistan work to leave the country by crossing the border in search of a good life. Most people migrate to other nations due to basic human rights being withheld, low economic growth in their country and with the little hope that they can find a good future for themselves in their nation," as was stated in Eurasianet's report in May.

There is a big issue of people leaving the country and not going back.

Turkmenistan's sports teams have come to Maldives to compete in competitions. However, their women's team did not get permission to travel to Maldives.

The other teams competing in the championship that will begin on Saturday are Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Bangladesh.