Sri Lankan sporting disappearances

Since at least 1993, there have been numerous instances in which athletes and sports managers from Sri Lanka—professionals or secretly amateurs—have disappeared in foreign countries while competing in or training for international events. Hundreds of people have gone missing in at least 47 such incidents, which are known by Sri Lankan sports officials as "decampings". In most of these cases, investigators suspect the missing persons were escaping war or economic hardship in Sri Lanka, using sports to legally enter foreign countries so they can illegally stay and work there. Officials of Sri Lankan delegations now take precautions to deter future disappearances, sometimes to no effect. Delegates of other nations have also gone missing overseas, but the phenomenon is uniquely common amongst Sri Lankans.

The most infamous case was in 2004, when all 23 members of a supposed Sri Lankan "national handball team" disappeared during a tournament in the German region of Bavaria, and were last witnessed by taxi drivers who dropped them off in Munich. The team had lost all their games, during which they displayed almost no knowledge of the rules of handball; Sri Lanka had no actual national handball team, and the sport was rarely played there. Before the event, the men had tricked the German embassy in Sri Lanka into issuing them German travel visas, possibly by submitting forged documents as proof the team had a history of operation. Consequently, Sri Lankan athletes stopped being issued German travel issues, no matter what sport they played.

Sri Lankan athletes disappear while competing in foreign events so often that the country's sporting officials have nicknamed the process of disappearing "decamping". By 2021, the country had started taking precautions to deter further disappearances. All Sri Lankan athletes became required to sign off on a bond of one million Sri Lankan rupees before competing overseas, then pay it off upon their return.^[1] Some delegates also have to give their passports and other important documents to team officials for the duration of their visits. Despite these changes, some athletes still go missing.^[2][3] As of 2025, there are there have been at least 47 separate incidents, in total involving hundreds of people (the 44 cases reported by Vice News in 2021, plus three aforementioned incidents since then).^[1]

The most common explanation given for this phenomenon is that the athletes are escaping war or economic depression in Sri Lanka, and use sporting events to legally enter foreign countries so they can illegally stay and work in them.^[4][5][6] From 1983 to 2009, Sri Lanka's northern region saw a civil war between the country's government and a Tamil nationalist militant group known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.^[4][7] In the early 2020s, the country experienced its worst economic crisis since it declared independence in 1948.^[8][9] A foreign exchange shortage had led the government to limit imports of food, fuel, and medicine, causing these items to be rationed, and forcing school closures.^[10][11] This created nationwide protests which the government violently countered, and president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ousted in 2022.^[12][11][13] The crisis continued under his successor Ranil Wickremesighe.^[14][10]

Overseas disappearances are a uniquely common problem among Sri Lankan athletes, but it is not exclusive to them. Since 2000, delegates of other nations in Africa and Asia have disappeared from at least eight international events.^{[1][2][15][16]} Investigators believe emigration is a possible explanation for most of these cases.^[15] The phenomenon dates back to at least the Cold War, when some athletes known as "Olympic defectors" disappeared during overseas Olympic games to easily leave their capitalist or communist home nations for the opposite type of government, as legal travel between those worlds was difficult.^[2]

During an unspecified sporting event in Canada in 1993, ten out of eleven members of a Sri Lankan national team disappeared and were never found. The remaining man traveled back to his home country.^[1]

The most infamous disappearance case was in 2004.^[2] On 8 September,^[17] a team of 21 men and their supposed coach and manager, constituting what they claimed was a Sri Lankan "national handball team", arrived in the German region of Bavaria, scheduled to play in a ten-game local handball tournament organized by the Asian-German Sports Exchange Program (AGSEP).^[18][19][4] 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.^[19] All 23 men had valid travel visas to be in Germany for a month.^[20][17] Staying together in a hotel in Wittislingen, they played a number of games and lost all of them. Their opponents claimed the team was bad at handball, seeming to know "virtually nothing" about its rules.^[18]

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.^[18][20] 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. At an unspecified location, a note from an unspecified author was found, saying the team had gone to France.^[18][19]

None of the 23 men were ever found.^[21] German and French investigators worked on the case, and Germany's border patrol officers were notified about the incident.^[20][22] 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 the city of Munich.^[18] Investigators theorized the team then illegally immigrated in Italy, where a notable Sri Lankan immigrant community had developed in the years prior. This theory was based off 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.^[4][18]

Sri Lankan sporting officials said their country did not have an official national handball team.^[20] They noted that the sport is "very rarely played" in the country, and it did not have a single handball club.^[19][22] An official with AGSEP 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.^[19] Even if they had been allowed, following the incident, Sri Lankan athletes stopped being issued travel visas to Germany, no matter what sport they played. This was due to the team having tricked the German embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, into believing they were a professional team who wanted to go on tour for a month. Thus, all of them were issued visas.^[17][23] Heidi Jung, the 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".^[17] 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".^[22]

American conservative TV channel Fox News falsely covered the disappearances by suggesting that "a handball team full of [ethnically] Tamil terrorists had been smuggled into Germany", tying the team to the Tamil nationalists in the Sri Lankan civil war. According to AGSEP founder Dietmar Doering, in reality, only three people on the team were Tamil.^[4]

The incident was depicted in the 2008 dramedy film Machan, directed by Uberto Pasolini.^[5][24] The film was critically acclaimed, and a blockbuster success in Sri Lanka.^[25] 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.^[5][24]

In 2007, while participating at an international training event organized by the International Olympic Council in Italy, a triple jump coach named Gayan Malika disappeared and was never found.^[1][26]

During the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea, two members of the Sri Lankan contingent, a hockey player and a beach volleyball player, disappeared and were never found. Investigators theorized the two were attempting to illegally live in the country. They were subsequently blacklisted from participating in multiple international sporting events.^[1][3][27]

In September 2021, Donald Indrawansa, a 45-year-old Sri Lankan wrestler, arrived in Oslo, Norway as the manager of his country's national delegation in the 2021 World Wrestling Championships. On 4 October, the day before he was scheduled to go back home with his team, Indrawansa suddenly disappeared without any witnesses or traces of him leaving. The rest of his team ultimately returned to their country. The Wrestling Federation of Sri Lanka announced it would investigate the incident, but the organization's president said Indrawansa had likely used the trip to illegally immigrate to Europe, condemning him for lacking sportsmanship.^[1][28]

In August 2022, eleven 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' athlete's village.^[3][29][30] Each member of the contingent had entered the U.K. on valid six-month visas.^[29] 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.^[3][31] 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.^[3][32] Marappulige went missing soon after losing her first match.^[33]

The delegation's officials notified authorities,^[34] starting an investigation by West Midlands Police and the National Olympic Committee.^[33][35] Authorities made sure the three would be unable to cross the U.K.'s borders.^[36] In an attempt to deter future disappearances, the officials made every delegate hand them their passports.^[3][37] Nonetheless, seven more people disappeared from the village by 7 August; they went unidentified by the press,^[3] except for boxer Vittalis Niklas.^[38] In 2025, an unnamed photographer with the contingent was reported to have also gone missing at some point during the Games.^[30] Notably, five of the missing persons had served in the Sri Lanka Armed Forces.^[29]

Multiple writers reported on the incident in the context of Sri Lanka's concurrent economic crisis.^[12][13][11] 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.^[39] The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka also announced they would have two employees monitoring the Games' athlete's village for looting or disappearances.^[40] Investigators suspected the missing persons had used the Games to illegally immigrate to the U.K.^[12]

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.^[2][3][12] At the request of the police, the delegation's officials eventually handed the delegates back their passports.^[37][41] 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.^[35] 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.^[30]

In June 2023, Greshan Dhananjaya, a Sri Lankan record-holding athlete in triple jump and a national champion in long jump visited Geneva, Switzerland to represent Sri Lanka in an international athletics event. He was accompanied at the start of the trip by women's long jump champion Sarangi Silva and coach Y. K. Kularathna. After participating in a long jump event, he disappeared and was never found. Saman Kumara Gunawardena, secretary of an organization representing national Sri Lanka sports delegations, Sri Lanka Athletics, said that the organization was not responsible to investigate the disappearance, as Dhananjaya was invited privately and not in association with a Sri Lanka Athletics delegation.^[42]

In August 2023, the annual World Archery Asia Challenge and its related athletic training program were held at the Wouju Koranju Archery Centre in South Korea. Five Sri Lankan athletes and their coach, representing the Sri Lanka Archery Association, arrived in the country, at which point two of them immediately disappeared without informing the others. The two archers have not been found.^[43]

• List of people who disappeared