Public asked to help find missing athletes

ANXIOUS Games officials have appealed to Gold Coasters to help track down at least 13 foreign athletes who have bolted, with some not even making it to their competition before disappearing.

Among them are the Sierra Leone men’s doubles squash players, Ernest Jombla and Yusif Mansaray, who failed to show for matches including one against India yesterday.

Two boxers from Cameroon also did not bother turning up for their bouts before taking off. They were among eight Cameroon athletes to vanish from the athletes village in a series of after-dark escapes.

Technically athletes’ visas do not expire until May 15 and so they are still free to travel within Australia.

But Cameroon officials took the extraordinary step of rounding up the 22 remaining team members and sending them home. They denied this was to stop any more fleeing.

Games officials said athletes from Uganda and Rwanda are among the missing 13.

With the Games drawing to a close this weekend, officials are bracing for more desertions.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has warned foreign athletes they will be tracked down and deported if they try to overstay visas and disappear into the Australian community.

Commonwealth Games Federation chief David Grevemberg yesterday appealed for public help to find them.

Relaying a plea from Team Cameroon’s chef de mission, Mr Grevemberg said “if anyone has seen or knows (where the missing athletes are) ... please get back to him”.

“Our focus right now is supporting the teams and the chef de missions and their administrative teams to do what they can do to try and track down those athletes that are missing,” he said.

Mr Grevemberg confirmed two athletes from Uganda and one from Rwanda were also missing and said the federation was investigating the non-appearance of the Sierra Leone squash players.

He said the athletes’ visas were not due to expire until May 15 and they were “still free to travel’’ within Australia.

“We’ve obviously been in close contact with the Cameroonian Commonwealth Games Association and we share their concern regarding the safety, welfare and whereabouts of these athletes,” Mr Grevemberg said.

Mr Dutton yesterday warned missing athletes they would not be given preferential treatment.

“They aren’t going to game the system,” he said.

“They aren’t going to stay here. The Australian Border Force officers in the compliance division there will find these people and they will be held in immigration detention until they can be deported.”

The Games have a history of participants dropping out of sight.

Dozens of foreign athletes disappeared after the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

In 2015 – a year after the Glasgow Games – Britain’s Home Office admitted that of the tousands of competitors, coaches, officials and their family members who had been granted clearance to travel to Scotland, 39 had absconded and were still missing.

A further 21 had applied for or been granted political asylum.

The ABC last night reported a Southport migration agent claimed more than 40 Gold Coast Games athletes had contacted his firm asking how they could remain in Australia.

Ian Natherson of Ready Migration was reported as saying most were from African nations, including Ghana and Nigeria, and also Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. He did not say whether any of the missing athletes had contacted the firm.