Sri Lankan sporting disappearances

Disappearance

The most infamous decamping was in 2004.^[8] On 8 September,^[27] 21 men and their self-described coach and manager, presenting themselves as Sri Lanka's 'national handball team', arrived in Bavaria. They were scheduled to play in a ten-game local handball tournament organized by the Asian-German Sports Exchange Program (AGSEP).^[28][29][2] Sri Lankan teams had competed in foreign countries through the exchange program without any problems for 15 years, so the German organizers of the handball tournament believed this team was genuinely Sri Lanka's national team.^[29] All 23 men had valid travel visas to be in Germany for a month.^[30][27] Staying together in a hotel in Wittislingen, they played a number of games and lost all of them. Their opponents said the Sri Lankan team seemed to know "virtually nothing" about the rules of handball.^[28]

On 13 September, the Sri Lankans were still scheduled to play in seven more games, but that morning, all of them did not show up at their scheduled breakfast with the Germans.^[28][30] The German athletes and organizers assumed they had gotten lost on a jog in the nearby woods, but upon investigating the team's room, they found nothing but loose items of clothing. A note was found, saying the team had gone to France.^[28][29]

None of the 23 men were ever found.^[31] German and French investigators worked on the case, and Germany's border patrol officers were notified about the incident.^[30][32] A taxi driver in Wittislingen told police that he and a few other local taxis were paid to bring the Sri Lankans to the central railway station of Munich.^[28] Investigators theorized that the team then illegally immigrated to Italy, where a notable Sri Lankan immigrant community had developed in the years prior. This theory was based on event organizers learning that one of the players contacted his mother in Sri Lanka, telling her he was currently located in Italy and would soon acquire a job.^[2][28]

After the decampings, Sri Lankan sporting officials said their country did not have an official national handball team,^[30] let alone a single handball club. They noted that the sport is "very rarely played" in the country.^[29][32] An AGSEP official said he was disappointed by the incident, and that the organization would not allow athletes from Sri Lanka to compete in any of their future handball tournaments.^[29] Germany stopped issuing travel visas to Sri Lankan athletes of any sport. This was because the team had tricked the German embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, into believing they were a professional team who wanted to tour for a month. All who applied as part of the team were issued visas.^[27][33] Heidi Jung, German ambassador to Sri Lanka, said: "They presented documents, and the documents looked all right, so there were no reasons to say we can't give you a visa".^[27] German immigration officials agreed with this explanation, saying the papers looked "quite genuine". In contrast, French investigators were reported as being "flustered" with Sri Lankan authorities for allowing the team to fly "without having apparently provided proper papers".^[32]

Media depictions

MEL Magazine's Andre Fiouzi writes that American conservative TV channel Fox News falsely reported on the story by suggesting that "a handball team full of Tamil terrorists had been smuggled into Germany", speaking of the team as if they were linked with the Tamil Tigers. According to AGSEP founder Dietmar Doering, only three people on the team were actually Tamil.^[2]

The disappearances were depicted in the 2008 dramedy film Machan, directed by Uberto Pasolini.^[10][34] The film was critically acclaimed, and a blockbuster success in Sri Lanka.^[35] During its production, the filmmakers interviewed many people in the country who could speak on the disappearances. Those people recalled that the men on the handball team had been poor in Sri Lanka, living in slums, and that going missing in such a manner was their solution to emigration after failing multiple times through legal avenues.^[10][34]

Disappearances

In August 2022, 11 of the 160 to 177 members of the Sri Lankan contingent at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, disappeared, most of them last witnessed at the Games' athletes' village.^[9][5][38] Each member of the contingent had entered the U.K. on valid six-month visas.^[5] On the 4th, male wrestler Yoda Pedige Shanith Chathuranga, female judoka Chamila Dilani Marappulige, and her female manager Tikiri Hannadige Duminda Asela De Silva disappeared without warning.^[9][39] Chathuranga was last seen at a Birmingham medical centre, leaving after receiving a positive test result for COVID-19, while the other two were last seen at the athlete's village.^[9][22] Marappulige went missing soon after losing her first match.^[40]

The delegation's officials notified authorities,^[41] starting an investigation by West Midlands Police and the National Olympic Committee.^[40][42] Authorities made sure the three would be unable to cross British borders.^[43] In an attempt to deter future disappearances, the officials made every delegate hand them their passports.^[9][44] Nonetheless, seven more people disappeared from the village by 7 August; they went unidentified by the press,^[9] except for boxer Vittalis Niklas.^[45] In 2025, an unnamed photographer with the contingent was reported to have also gone missing at some point during the Games.^[38] Notably, five of the missing persons had served in the Sri Lanka Armed Forces.^[5]

Investigation

Multiple writers reported on the incident in the context of Sri Lanka's concurrent economic crisis.^[20][21][19] Sri Lanka Cricket volunteered to finance 20 million Sri Lankan rupees for the delegates' expenses, as the team could not pay it on their own.^[46] The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka also announced they would have two employees monitoring the Games' athlete's village for looting or disappearances.^[45] Investigators suspected the missing persons had used the Games to illegally immigrate to the U.K.^[20]

Police eventually located Chathuranga, Marappulige, and de Silva; authorities did not charge them with any crimes, saying the three had valid visas and had followed local laws. Two of them spoke to the police, but were not identified by the press.^[8][9][20] At the request of the police, the delegation's officials eventually handed the delegates back their passports.^[44][47] In November 2022, West Midlands Police ended their investigation into Sri Lanka's disappearances, as well as delegates from other countries who also went missing during the Games, stating: "Those reported missing were either found, or the investigation closed because they were no longer believed to be missing." An update on any of the delegates' whereabouts was not given.^[42] In 2025, the Sri Lankan government began legal proceedings against the country's eleven missing delegates—including Chathuranga, Marappulige, and de Silva—and issued warrants for their arrest through Interpol.^[38]