Editing 2006 Commonwealth Games (section)

== Controversies ==

===Missing athletes===
On 20 March 2006 it was reported that two athletes had gone missing from the Commonwealth Games village: [[Tanzania]]n boxer [[Omari Idd Kimweri]] and [[Bangladesh]]i runner Mohammad Tawhidul Islam.<ref>{{cite news | first=Ellen | last=Whinnett |url=http://heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18556695%255E2862,00.html | title=Mystery of missing athletes | work=[[Herald Sun]] | date=22 March 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=sportsNews&storyID=2006-03-23T042811Z_01_SYD317188_RTRUKOC_0_US-COMMONWEALTH-MISSING.xml&archived=False | title=Nine athletes vanish from Commonwealth Games | work=[[Reuters]] | date=22 March 2006 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

On 22 March 2006 it was reported that seven athletes from [[Sierra Leone]] (three women and four men) had also disappeared. A further seven Sierra Leonean athletes also went missing during the course of the Games, bringing the total runaway count to fourteen (two-thirds of the team). [[Victoria Police]] believed that they had fled to Sydney where the Sierra Leonean community is much larger than Melbourne's.

Two hours before the Closing Ceremony on 26 March, officials from the [[Cameroon]] team reported to police that nine of their members had also vanished.

These incidents were not without precedent: 27 athletes similarly disappeared from the [[2002 Commonwealth Games]] in Manchester, England (21 from Sierra Leone, 5 from Bangladesh and one from Pakistan), and over 80 athletes and officials overstayed their visas after the [[2000 Summer Olympics]] in Sydney.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4835826.stm | title=Athletes 'go missing from Games' | work=[[BBC News Online]] | date=23 March 2006}}</ref>

On request of Sierra Leone officials, the Commonwealth Games Federation cancelled those athletes' Games accreditation, allowing the [[Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Australia)|Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs]] (DIMA) to cancel their visas at midnight on 27 March, and begin investigating their disappearance.
At 7.20&nbsp;am on that day, [[New South Wales Police]] located six of the Sierra Leonean athletes in a house at [[Freshwater, New South Wales|Freshwater]] near [[Manly Beach]] in Sydney. All six indicated they wished to seek [[political asylum in Australia]], and were granted bridging visas by DIMA while their refugee applications were arranged. The athletes claimed to have been subjected to violence and torture in their home country; seventeen-year-old Isha Conteh stated she could be forced into [[female genital cutting]] if she returned.<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1602299.htm ABC] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306071745/http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1602299.htm |date=6 March 2016 }}</ref> On Tuesday 28 March, six further Sierra Leoneans turned themselves in to immigration authorities in Sydney and were also granted bridging visas.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/visas-for-second-group-of-athletes/2006/03/28/1143441127017.html | title=Visas for second group of athletes | work=[[The Age]] | date=28 March 2006}}</ref>

Two of the missing Cameroonian athletes were later found in [[Perth, Western Australia]].

=== The Stolenwealth Games ===
The Stolenwealth Games were protests at the 1982 and 2006 Commonwealth Games. People were protesting because they believed that the Commonwealth Games led to the erasure of indigenous people.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/apr/09/the-fight-never-left-stolenwealth-games-protesters-draw-on-long-tradition|title='The fight never left': Stolenwealth Games protesters draw on long tradition|last=Latimore|first=Jack|date=2018-04-08|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-11-03}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://blackgst.revolt.org/stolenwealth/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060319235724/http://blackgst.revolt.org/stolenwealth/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2006-03-19|title=M2006|date=2006-03-19|access-date=2020-01-15}}</ref> There were also problems with land rights. These protests led to the creation of the Global Indigenous Games.