More than 40 athletes and officials looking for visas, says migration agency
THE Rwandan weightlifting coach was getting his team ready for competition at the Commonwealth Games, when he said he was popping to the loo. But then he never came back.
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ONE minute Rwanda’s weightlifting coach was geeing up his team for the performance of their lives, but when he said he was going to the loo, he never came back.
His disappearance means he is among at least 13 African athletes suspected of going on the run from the Commonwealth Games in a bid to gain asylum in Australia and he is now being sought by immigration officers.
Gold Coast residents have been asked to keep a lookout for runaway African athletes on the streets of the Glitter Strip as more go missing.
The athletes from Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Rwanda are thought to have done a runner as the Games draw to a close this weekend and Games officials are bracing for more desertions.
Rwandan chef de mission Nzabaterura Eugene told The Australian that weightlifting coach Jean Paul Nsengiyumva had not been seen by the team since Tuesday.
“He was at Carrara Stadium with an athlete for the competition there and before the end of the competition the coach went to the toilet and from then we realised he was not in the stadium or the (athletes) village,” Mr Eugene said. “We had a chat to police and administration in the village. “All of his stuff is in the room (at the village).”
It comes as one migration agency on the Gold Coast revealed that more than 40 people — including athletes and journalists — have inquired about staying in Australia after the end of the Commonwealth Games.
“More than 40 people, including Commonwealth Games athletes, journalists and others have come in over the last 10 days looking for visas they can apply for and how they can stay in Australia,” Jim MacAnally, an office administrator for Ready Migration, told CNN.
Mr MacAnally said inquiries had come from a range of different nations, including several from African delegations.
Mr Eugene pleaded to his countryman to return.
“He was in a mission for the country,” he told The Australian. “If he wants to extend his visa here he can do it legally.”
The Courier-Mail reports that Sierra Leone men’s doubles squash players Ernest Jombla and Yusif Mansaray have failed to even show for matches including one yesterday against India.
Two boxers, who are among eight Cameroonians to vanish from the athletes village in a series of after-dark escapes, also did not bother to turn up to competition.
However, disappearances during major sporting events such as this are nothing new. After the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, 45 athletes remained unlawfully in Australia or applied for protection visas. After the Sydney Olympics, about 145 overstayed their visas and 35 applied for asylum.
Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive David Grevemberg said it was disappointing the athletes didn’t show up when they were scheduled to compete.
“But these athletes are guests here in Australia, they are still within their visas and they have the right to travel freely,” Mr Grevemberg told AP.
“Right now we are worried about safety and welfare of the athletes and we are taking this very seriously and monitoring the situation with team Cameroon.”
Gold Coast organising committee chairman Peter Beattie said he wasn’t surprised and it was something that happened at other games.
Mr Beattie, a former Queensland state premier, said the authorities had mechanisms in place to deal with the situation if the athletes overstay their visas.
“I don’t want to be blase ... (but) I don’t get too excited about this,” he said. “There is a system to deal with this and it will be dealt with.”
In January, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warned athletes who were planning to attend the games they needed to follow the country’s laws.
“Our message to the half a per cent of people who might think that they can overstay a visa or not act within the conditions of their visa is that Australia has very tough laws and they need to abide by the law,” he said in Canberra on January 30.
Originally published as More than 40 athletes and officials looking for visas, says migration agency
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