12, April 2018
After La Republique: More African athletes missing from Commonwealth Games 0
A men’s squash pairing from Sierra Leone and a Rwandan para-powerlifting coach are the latest African absentees to go missing from the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Hours after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warned athletes who breached their visa conditions they’d be tracked down, locked up and deported, Sierra Leone’s Ernest Jombla and Yusif Mansaray did not appear for their men’s doubles match on Thursday morning.
It means Jombla and Mansaray failed to appear for either of their matches on the Gold Coast after skipping Tuesday’s clash with Welsh pair Peter Creed and Joel Makin. Despite the pair not making their matches, Sierra Leone officials insisted both were still at the village and had merely confused the times of their events.
Rwanda’s chef de mission Eugene Nzabanterura said coach Jean Paul Nsengiyuma hadn’t been seen since his athlete’s event finished at the Carrara Sports and Leisure Centre on Tuesday.
“Up to now we don’t know where he is,” Nzabanterura told AAP.
“We’ve declared it to the police and the administration of GOLDOC and we are still searching for him.”
Two Ugandans were reportedly missing but team officials were adamant all of their athletes and officials were accounted for.
The developments came a day after Cameroon revealed eight of its 42-strong Games team are missing, including two boxers who failed to appear for their bouts.
Most athletes and officials are on visas that remain valid until May 15 but Dutton was concerned by 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.
“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.”
Dutton said if any of the missing athletes claimed protection status, Border Force would test each case.
“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.
Commonwealth Games boss Peter Beattie said while the athletes’ visas allow them to spend time enjoying Australia, they should return to their home country as scheduled.
“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, and that’s our position,” Beattie told ABC Radio.
Source: World Wide of Sports
17, April 2018
Cameroon team chief says he’s heard nothing from missing athletes 0
Cameroon’s Chef de Mission is due to fly out of the Gold Coast this morning having heard nothing from his eight missing Commonwealth Games athletes, saying he is exhausted from the scrutiny prompted by their disappearance.
Victor Agbor Nso had to deal with the media fallout after the athletes vanished from the athletes’ village during competition in a series of late night walk-outs. They included weightlifters and boxers. All but one had competed in their individual events before they disappeared.
Ms Nso told the ABC yesterday afternoon he had not heard from his “missing” athletes and wanted to make sure all his other team members had flown home before he headed to the airport.
“As far as I am aware they are still missing,” he said. “I have spoken, I have communicated sufficiently on this and the issue is now in the hands of the Australian Government, especially the Australian police. “I do not want to talk about this any more, I am concentrating on returning home.”
Some officials also performed vanishing acts, including Rwanda’s weightlifting coach who said he was off to the toilet ahead of his team’s performance — but never returned.
None are technically in breach of their visas, which do not run out until midnight May 15.
Gold Coast migration consultant Ian Natherson said last week his firm had been inundated with calls from African Games participants looking for ways to legally stay in Australia. “You can’t blame them trying to stay,” he said yesterday.
“Look at the weather here, and the lifestyle. It is a great place to be in. Why would you want to go back? “This has happened with all games. It happened at the Sydney Olympics, and it will happen again if we are lucky enough to get the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.
“It is only when you get here you realise how great this country is and what it has to offer. “Just walking down the street the freedom you have — you cannot do that in alot of African countries. “I come from South Africa myself, where I would not walk the streets after dark.
“But I am sure a lot of them did do that here and just thoroughly enjoyed the freedom. “I always say to people — if you are born in this country you have no idea how good it is until you have come from somewhere else.”
Mr Natherson said a Kenyan paralympian and her husband contacted his firm yesterday inquiring about how they could stay. He said he had fielded more than 40 calls from a range of different nations, but mostly Africans.
Mr Natherson said he did not know if any of the inquiries were from the missing Cameroonian athletes. “No-one has come in with any formal paperwork,” he said. An Australian Border Force official says the missing athletes and officials would be red flagged from May 16, tracked down and deported if they were still in the country.
Meanwhile, a Mauritian team official who left Australia after being charged with sexual assault is due to appear in Southport Magistrates Court this morning.
The 52-year-old, who strenuously denied the allegations, had been expelled from the athletes village and had his Games accreditation cancelled. He had made an undertaking to appear in court, but flew home to Mauritius on April 13.
Source: ABC.Net