GLASGOW, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Scottish police are investigating reports of foreign athletes, identified in the media as boxers from Uganda and Pakistan, who failed to return home after competing in the Commonwealth Games that ended in Glasgow last Sunday.
“Police Scotland has received reports of several athletes who are unaccounted for,” a spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“Enquiries are ongoing to assess the circumstances, and early engagement is taking place with the Home Office.”
Uganda’s NBS Sport reported that four of the country’s six-member boxing team had gone missing ahead of the team’s scheduled return home on Tuesday and one of them told the broadcaster they planned to seek asylum.
The Pakistan Today website said one of the country’s boxers had also failed to show up for a flight home on Tuesday.
Reports of missing athletes after Commonwealth Games have been common in recent editions, which have been hosted in Australia or Britain since Glasgow 2014.
In 2018, after the Gold Coast Games in Australia, authorities were seeking 50 athletes and officials still missing a month after competition ended, with another 190 seeking asylum.
Some 3,000 athletes from 74 nations attended the 11 days of the Glasgow Games.
(Reporting by Alan BaldwinEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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