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The best of the best
REVEALED: How 70 Olympic athletes and coaches are still in Britain after claiming asylum last year | Mail Online
I would have thought they could have come under tier 1.Half have already been granted refugee status by the Home Office and will be allowed to settle.
The rest are still in the country fighting for the right to remain.
Police have admitted they are also looking for several other Olympic visa holders whose right to be in the UK expired seven months ago. They have ‘simply wandered off to make a better life’ in Britain, according to a senior officer.
At the end of the Games, reports suggested around 21 athletes and coaches had disappeared from the Olympic Village and failed to return home to countries including the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Cameroon and Sudan.
But the Daily Mail has learnt the true total is much higher.
Some 70,000 Olympic Games Family Member visas were issued to give coaches, athletes and team officials a limited right to stay in Britain until last November.
A Freedom of Information request to the Home Office about how many stayed on after that was not answered for seven months, despite a legal deadline of 21 days.
Sources said officials had been ‘running around desperately’ to find as many illegal Olympic over-stayers as possible before answering questions.
When the request was finally answered, officials said they believed the ‘great majority’ of the 70,000 had left the country.
out of curiosity why are we allowing countries with disgusting human right abuses take part in the Olympics?
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