Years of arduous preparation and training had come to fruition and the pressure was finally lifted. After competing for their country in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, athletes from Uganda were afforded a couple of days’ sightseeing time before catching their plane home on Tuesday.
But when the flight took off, there were four empty seats.
Only two of the team of six boxers returned to Uganda. Ibrahim Kemis, Emily Nakalema, Angel Katushabe and the captain, Nuhu Batte, were missing.
One of the athletes reportedly told the Ugandan news website NBS Sport they were intending to claim asylum in the UK where there are better training facilities. But the team manager for the Ugandan Commonwealth Games team told the BBC he had “absolutely no idea” what basis they would have for an asylum claim in the UK.
“It’s nothing political, it’s nothing to do with gender or something [like that] – I have absolutely no idea why they would be doing that,” said the team’s chef de mission, Godwin Kayangwe.
The first indication something was amiss was that their phones were turned off – against the rules of the Ugandan team camp, as athletes need permission to come and go. And then they vanished.
The Guardian understands the foursome were initially taken in by a boxing gym in Glasgow but are no longer in Scotland. The owner of the gym did not respond to queries about the missing boxers.
Kayangwe hoped they would make the “right decision” and return to Uganda.
The Pakistani boxer Qudratullah was also missing, having not joined his teammates on the flight home. He was not in his room when officials went to search for him.
The events have been the subject of gossip in the boxing world, with rumours abound that the Ugandans had paid money to a Scottish coach to help them disappear. One man involved in boxing, who did not want to be named, said he believed there was “something very, very suspicious going on” and that their location was a closely guarded secret..
Police Scotland said it had received reports of athletes not returning home and that it was working with the Home Office to assess the situation.
A Glasgow ۲۰۲۶ spokesperson said the organisers were working closely with authorities – including Police Scotland, Border Force and UK Visas & Immigration – to ensure that ۳,۰۰۰ athletes from ۷۴ nations and territories could safely and securely participate.
This is not the first time athletes have disappeared after tournaments in the UK. The Home Office carries out enhanced checks on participants before big sporting events, due to how prevalent it is.
It is estimated ۲۷ people did not leave after the Manchester Commonwealth Games in ۲۰۰۲, ۶۶ after Glasgow ۲۰۱۴, and ۱۷ after Birmingham in ۲۰۲۲. After the ۲۰۱۲ Olympics in London, several athletes chose to stay. Tribunal decisions from asylum applications show a number of people, including athletes from Cameroon and Sudan, and the Ethiopian Olympic flag bearer, all attempted to claim asylum in the UK.
The stories go back decades. More than ۶۰۰ former East German athletes defected before the fall of the Berlin Wall, some of them exposing compulsory doping going on in their home country.
Pete Carvill, a boxing commentator and author, said there were many examples of boxers not going back to their home countries because it was possible to have a more lucrative career elsewhere.
“Most of the guys who do defect don’t make the best of the opportunity,” he said. “They leave behind the discipline of their amateur programmes and usually end up with lifestyle issues.”
He said they often “put weight on that is hard to take off, they begin drinking and partying, they stop training. A lot of them also get taken advantage of, signing contracts that they don’t understand and blowing the purses that they receive.”
There are examples of athletes who have stayed in the UK after big tournaments facing legal trouble. Last year, Philip Pariyo, a Ugandan rugby player who claimed asylum after the ۲۰۱۴ Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, was imprisoned for raping a woman in Cardiff. A team Pakistan boxer, Nazeer Ullah Khan, was convicted of harassing a woman he met while working in a kebab shop after failing to return to his home country when the ۲۰۲۲ Commonwealth Games in Birmingham ended.
There are far more success stories, however. Many athletes have made a life in the UK and had families, and some still compete. Eritrean-born Weynay Ghebresilasie was the fastest Scottish man at the London Marathon this year, having claimed asylum and settled in Glasgow after the ۲۰۱۲ Olympics.
Cyrille Tchatchet, a Cameroonian-born weightlifter, won a silver medal for Team GB at the Commonwealth Games last week, ۱۲ years after he refused to go back to his home country.
He disappeared after the ۲۰۱۴ Games, sleeping rough and eventually being granted refugee status in ۲۰۱۶. He told the BBC: “I remember talking to [my mum] when I left the Commonwealth village. I told her I didn’t have a place to go and she was very concerned.”
Tchatchet, who now works as a nurse in the West Midlands, said: “Going back to Glasgow, competing and actually winning a silver medal … I’m very, very proud and honoured to have been given this opportunity to represent England.”
