Nine athletes and a manager of the Sri Lankan Commonwealth contingent have gone missing after completing their tournament, a Sri Lankan official said on Sunday.
Tthe official, requesting anonymity, said they disappeared in a suspicious attempt to stay in the UK.
Three of them, judoka Chamila Dilani, her manager Asela de Silva and wrestler Shanith Chaturanga, went missing last week.
This prompted the Sri Lankan authorities to file a police complaint.
Another seven have since gone missing, the official said without identifying them.
“We suspect they want to stay in the UK, possibly to find employment,” the official said.
The Sri Lankan management kept the passports of the 160-member team with them to ensure their return home but they failed to stop some members from leaving.
A Sri Lankan official told AFP that British police had previously found three members who had gone missing, but that no action was taken since they had not violated local laws and held visas valid for six months. .
“In fact, the police asked us to return the passports that we had as a deterrent against defection,” the officer said. The police did not inform the authorities about their whereabouts.
Britain’s West Midlands Police Force, which covers Birmingham, said it was looking into reports of six Sri Lankans missing from the Games, adding that “inquiries are ongoing to ensure they are safe and sound.” “.
The police force declined to comment further, including claims of a total of 10 missing, and the UK Interior Ministry also declined to comment.
Sri Lankan athletes have won one silver and three bronze medals in the Games till Sunday evening.
This is not the first time Sri Lankan athletes have been reported missing from international events. Such incidents have happened repeatedly in the past as well.
In Oslo last October, Sri Lanka’s wrestling manager abandoned his team during a World Championships tournament and went missing.
During the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea, two Sri Lankan athletes scored a run for it and did not get it.
A similar incident occurred in 2004, when Sri Lanka did not even have a national handball team, a 23-man group pretending to represent the country made their way to a tournament in Germany and disappeared.
With inputs from AFP.
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