Police Scotland is investigating reports of several athletes who failed to return home with their teams after the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, which closed on Sunday.
“Police Scotland has received reports of several athletes who are unaccounted for,” a spokesperson said. “Inquiries are ongoing to assess the circumstances, and early engagement is taking place with the Home Office.”
The Ugandan sports website NBS Sport reported that four members of Uganda’s boxing squad did not board the flight home. Local media named them as Nuhu Batte, Angel Katushabe, Ibrahim Kemis and Emily Nakalema. NBS Sport said it had spoken to one of the four, who said the group intended to seek asylum and continue their boxing careers in a country they believed offered better training facilities than their own, and who asked Ugandans not to judge them for the decision.
A spokesman for Team Uganda told BBC Scotland News the team had no comment. The rest of the squad has since flown home.
Pakistan Today reported separately that boxer Qudratullah did not travel back with his team mates and was not found in his room when officials went to look for him.
Games organisers respond
Athletes were expected to leave under the Glasgow 2026 length-of-stay policy, with accommodation ending two nights after each competitor’s sport finished.
“Over the last two weeks, we have welcomed 3,000 athletes from 74 nations and territories of the Commonwealth to Glasgow,” Glasgow 2026 spokeswoman Sophie Ashcroft said, adding that organisers were working with Police Scotland, Border Force and UK Visas and Immigration to ensure a safe conclusion to the Games.
The Home Office is understood to carry out enhanced checks ahead of major sporting events. Any asylum claims would be assessed individually on the facts and available evidence.
Disappearances have followed previous editions of the Games, including the 2014 event also held in Glasgow. Cameroonian weightlifter Cyrille Tchatchet II, who went missing after those Games, competed again in 2026 and won silver.
Sri Lanka’s own record
Sri Lanka has faced the same issue at recent Games. Ada Derana reported in August 2022 that a wrestler, a judoka and the manager of the judo team had left the athletes’ village at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games without warning, from a 161-strong contingent; UK police traced two of them.
No Sri Lankan athletes have been reported among those unaccounted for in Glasgow. The country sent a 40-member squad to the 2026 Games, and its medallists returned to an official welcome at Bandaranaike International Airport on Tuesday.
