Hunt for missing Tongan rugby players

By THERESA GARNER

Fourteen members of a Tongan rugby team are being hunted by immigration officials after not turning up for their flight home.

The men, from a 30-strong under-21 squad from the northern island group of Vava'u, did not show up at Auckland Airport on September 8.

They had been granted a month-long visa for the purpose of playing rugby, but have now melted into Auckland.

Their disappearance has sparked a big search and placed the future entry of Tongan groups in jeopardy.

A visit by the Tongan women's rugby league team, due in Auckland on Monday, has been delayed a week.

Immigration officials were initially reluctant to let the men's group in and rejected some applications. But spokeswoman Trish Green said the applications had been reconsidered after assurances were given that the players would return.

The immigration consultant who helped the team gain permits, Salote Lilo, of Apraxus Immigration in Mangere East, is pleading with families sheltering the men to make them go home.

"Some of them were high risk, in the category of single [and] unemployed and some of their relatives have overstayed here," Mrs Lilo said.

"I took some of the [team] officials to the immigration manager in Tonga to give some kind of promise to secure that all the boys will come back."

Mrs Lilo has gone on air on the Pacific radio station 531pi to urge the Tongan community and the men's families to give them up. "I will help them if they are willing to go home."

Since then, about five families sheltering an overstayer had contacted her asking what they could do now. Some had asked whether the visa could be extended.

Trish Green said the players would be given the opportunity to leave voluntarily if they showed up in a reasonable amount of time. "If not, they will be removed if they are found and banned for five years."