190 Commonwealth Games athletes apply for asylum in Australia

ALMOST 200 athletes and officials who visited Australia’s Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games have sought asylum afterwards.

Since the games ended last month, there have been reports of missing athletes around the country, mostly involving competitors from African nations such as Rwanda, Uganda and Sierra Leone. Eight athletes from Cameroon, a third of that country’s entire team, did not return home when the games ended on April 15.

Australia had issued 13,600 visas to athletes and team officials.

Immigration authorities told a parliamentary committee that 8,103 people arrived on the visas but only 7,848 have since left. Of the 255 who appear to have stayed, 205 are on temporary bridging visas after applying for other visas. Malisa Golightly, from the department of home affairs, said about 190 of these people had already applied for asylum.

“My understanding is that anybody who is onshore can apply for protection legally once they are here, but then, of course, they are considered against the criteria for that visa,” she said. “They will be assessed according to the standard criteria… we will give them priority as far as we can.”

The disappearance of the visitors – some of whom left the athletes’ village before competing – sparked a nationwide search. Some have reportedly consulted migration agents in Sydney and Melbourne.

Simplice Fotsala, a 29-year-old light flyweight boxer from Cameroon, made headlines last week after photographs emerged on his Facebook account that showed him posing at various landmarks in Melbourne in late April.

The eight Cameroonians reportedly disappeared from the athletes’ village in groups of two or three over three successive nights. Their athlete visas allowed them to stay only until May 15.

Others who went missing included a Rwandan athlete, two squash players from Sierra Leone and two athletes from Uganda. A year after the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the Home Office said 21 athletes or officials applied for or were granted political asylum and another 39 were unaccounted for.

Following the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, 45 people overstayed their visas or claimed asylum. After London 2012, 54 athletes and officials were granted political asylum.