The 2022 Special Olympics kicked off this week in Orlando, Florida, but something went wrong almost immediately. Shortly after arriving and checking in, six members of the delegation from Haiti “disappeared.” They all turned in their keys at the hotel but left their bags behind and departed. Thus far officials are saying that “foul play is not suspected,” but there are obvious concerns over the welfare of the group. While nothing should be taken for granted and efforts are being made to locate them (hopefully safely), it’s probably not too difficult to guess what happened in this case. (NBC News)

Six Haitian delegates in Florida for the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games have gone missing, authorities said Tuesday.

No foul play was suspected in their disappearance from the games’ venue in Kissimmee, part of Disney World’s property near Orlando.

“All of them turned in their room keys, and left behind their personal bags and belongings,” the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said in a missing persons bulletin.

Only one of the members of the missing group was listed as an athlete. He’s a soccer player and is listed as having an “intellectual disability.” The other five were described as being “part of Haiti’s delegation,” whatever that means. Additional concerns have been raised because we can’t be sure of the nature of the athlete’s mental disability and whether or not that would make him more vulnerable to foul play.

But does that sound likely? Let’s face it. These people are from Haiti. That country is a disaster and has been for years. Few people are safe or secure in Haiti aside from the very wealthy and politically well-connected.

With that as a backdrop, does it sound all that implausible that part of the Haitian delegation decided to abandon the games and seek asylum in the United States rather than return to their homeland? They may have planned the entire thing in advance and had help waiting for them in Florida. That might explain why they would be comfortable abandoning all of their personal belongings and how they managed to vanish so quickly.

Also, if this had been some sort of abduction scenario, why would the group have checked out of the hotel and turned in their keys so shortly after arriving? That would seem to indicate that they knew they wouldn’t be coming back to the hotel. It would have been nice if they’d left a note, however. It might have alleviated a lot of the worry that is currently consuming the games’ organizers.

So if we go with the asylum theory, what status do these athletes have in terms of making a claim? Presumably, they all had tourist visas at a minimum since that’s required to travel from Haiti to America. Those visas typically last for 180 days and can be extended for up to ten years with sufficiently good cause offered. But if they don’t surface and they overstay their visas, the reality is that they will simply be six more illegal immigrants in the United States. If they have some sort of sponsorship deal arranged, here’s to hoping that they show up somewhere soon and are all safe. And as asylum applicants go, this group might be worth considering for approval.