Peter Dutton issues stern warning to Commonwealth Games runaways

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has issued a stern warning to the Cameroon athletes who fled the Commonwealth Games.

Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: AAP.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has warned runaway Commonwealth Games athletes that he will track them down, “lock them in a local watch house” and deport them if they do not leave Australia by the May 15.

Mr Dutton said the eight Cameroon athletes who are reported missing from the team will not get away with unlawfully staying in Australia.

The African team has flown the rest of its team home after a third of its athletes vanished in night-time escapes.

“These people and others who might have a similar objective need to hear this message very clearly: they aren’t going to game the system, they aren’t going to stay here and the Australian Border Force officers in the compliance division will find these people, they will be held in immigration detention until they can be deported,” Mr Dutton told 2GB radio.

“On the face of what I have seen so far, people are validly on visas until mid-May, nonetheless though we are concerned that people haven’t turned up to events when that is the reason they were here.

“We warned about this before the games, people were saying ‘you are being too harsh’ and the rest of it but that’s the reality.”

Mr Dutton said there had been some people who had been barred from coming to Australia for the games, including a group of people who pretended to be journalists.

“The compliance officers will be out there I promise tracking these people down and they will be deported as quickly as possible,” he said.

“So if they don’t want to be held in detention or locked up at the local watch-house they would be better to jump on a plane before the 15th and comply with their visa conditions.”