Five more African athletes have gone missing from the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, taking the total of unaccounted for competitors to 13.
Games officials announced squash players Ernest Jombla and Yusif Mansaray from Sierra Leone as well as one athlete from Rwanda and two from Uganda have gone missing.
A further eight athletes from Cameroon have also disappeared from the event. Officials said they are monitoring reports of the absences from the federations.
The disappearance comes just hours after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warned that athletes who breach their visa conditions would be tracked down, locked up and deported.
Games officials announced squash players Ernest Jombla and Yusif Mansaray from Sierra Leone have gone missing
Five more African athletes have gone missing from the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast , taking the total of unaccounted for competitors to 13 (Sierra Leone team pictured)
Games officials announced squash players Ernest Jombla and Yusif Mansaray from Sierra Leone as well as one athlete from Rwanda and two from Uganda have gone missing (Uganda team pictured)
The disappearance comes just hours after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warned that athletes who breach their visa conditions would be tracked down, locked up and deported. Pictured: Rwandan flag bearer Nyirarukundo Salome
Games officials said the athletes had not breached their visas and were able to move around Australia as they liked, ABC News reported.
Police said none of the Cameroon athletes have been reported missing.
Jombla and Mansaray’s disappearance meant India’s Ramit Tandon and Vikram Malhotra won their scheduled clash by default.
Mr Dutton said most Games athletes were on visas that remained valid until mid-May, but he was concerned by two instances in which athletes missed their events at the Games ‘when that was the reason they were here’.
He said they were ‘taking the mickey’.
‘The compliance officers will be out there, I promise, tracking these people down and they’ll be deported as quickly as possible,’ he told Macquarie Radio on Thursday.
‘If they don’t want to be held in detention or locked up at the local watch house, they’d better jump on a plane before the 15th and comply with their visas conditions.’
Mr Dutton said if any of the missing athletes claimed protection status, Border Force would test each case.
Games officials said the athletes had not breached their visas and were able to move around Australia as they liked. Pictured: Olivier Heracles Matam Matam
‘These people and others that might have a similar objective need to hear this message very clearly – they aren’t going to game the system,’ he said.
After the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, 26 people requested asylum in Australia. Fourteen of them were from Sierra Leone.
Those 14 athletes left the Games village during the event but later turned themselves in to immigration officials.
A Cameroon team spokesman said 14 athletes who had finished their events had already flown home, but there were others still waiting to compete in wrestling and boxing.
Five more African athletes have gone missing from the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, taking the total of unaccounted for competitors to 13. Pictured: Arcangeline Fouodji Sonkbou
He said Cameroon plans to be in attendance at the closing ceremony on Sunday.
Cameroon chef de mission Victor Agbor Nso said the eight athletes who had left the village did so at three different stages.
Three left the on Sunday night, two more the following day and then three more on Tuesday night.
A Cameroon team spokesman said 14 athletes who had finished their events had already flown home, but there were others still waiting to compete in wrestling and boxing. Pictured: Olivier Heracles Matam Matam
Six had finished competing, while the two boxers left the village without taking part in their events.
Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (GOLDOC) chairman Peter Beattie said competitors should follow visa regulations.
‘We encourage people to get a visa, come here and compete, stay a little while after, spend some money in this country and then go home,’ he said.
‘Border security is aware of it – these people are still within their visa – but at the end of the day I would encourage them to return to the village.’
Beattie said GOLDOC anticipated some athletes would leave the Games early.
‘Clearly it’s not a great thing to have happened. I just hope they’re out enjoying the delights of Queensland for a little while and will do the right thing and come back to the Games and go home appropriately.’
Officials said they are monitoring reports of the absences from the federations. Pictured: Petit David Minkoumba