Missing Commonwealth Games athletes reappear in Sydney

Some of the 19 athletes who disappeared from the Commonwealth Games in April have resurfaced in Sydney, and are looking for a way to stay in Australia.

According to a Daily Telegraph article published by news.com.au, a group of African athletes is seeking advice from the Refugee Advice and Casework Service in Randwick.

All of the missing athletes are on visas that expire at midnight on Tuesday, after which they will face detention or deportation unless they have a new visa application in progress.

A third of the Cameroon team disappeared not long after the Games started on April 4. Cameroon team manager Victor Agbor Nso told the Journal du Cameroon the athletes failed to show up to their events and that he believed they had snuck out of their rooms in the middle of the night.

Not long after, competitors from Uganda, Rwanda and Sierra Leone also went missing.

Some of the athletes in question include Cameroon weightlifters Olivier Matam, Aka Angeline Filji and Mikoumba Petit David, and boxers Ndzie Tchoyi and Simplice Fotsala.

Rogue athletes aren’t uncommon at big international sporting events, and Australia saw similar circumstances after the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

However, Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton has previously warned: “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.

“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.”

While the some of the athletes are reportedly seeking to refugee status, Dutton said in April that he wouldn’t hesitate to deport those who outstayed their welcome.

“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.”

What are your thoughts on this? Should they be allowed to stay if they’re legitimate refugees?