A Canadian is missing in Fiji amid media reports a man vanished from a resort in April, Global Affairs Canada confirms.
The federal government confirmed to CTVNews.ca a Canadian tourist has gone missing after local media in Fiji and Australia reported Russian-Canadian dual citizen Ildar Rakhmatulim went missing more than two months ago.
“Global Affairs Canada is aware of a Canadian missing in Fiji,” a spokesperson told CTVNews.ca in an email Tuesday.
The national agency stopped short of confirming his identity.
“Canadian officials are providing consular support to the family of the Canadian citizen and communicating with local authorities. Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed.”
According to the Fiji Times, Rakhmatulim was staying at a resort along the Coral Coast. A handful of his belongings, including a cellphone, were found on the beach. Searches on land and a diving team deployed by local police to nearby waters at the end of June did not turn up anything.
“An investigation team headed by the Divisional Crime Officer West is looking into a report of missing Russian tourist Mr Ildar Rakhmatulin,” the Fiji Police Force said in a June 8 statement. The investigation was prompted by the Russian embassy in Australia, according to the statement.
Although he went missing in early April, it wasn’t registered back home in Canada for weeks, according to Alexander Patrushev, who has been trying to get to the bottom of Rakhmatulim’s disappearance.
“He’s my friend,” Patrushev told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview. “We studied at Western University together.”
Ildar Rakhmatulim appears in this undated photo submitted by Alexander Patrushev. (HANDOUT / Alexander Patrushev)
The two met in 2009 while both studying in London, Ontario. There weren’t many Russian students at the university at the time, so they kept in touch after they were introduced by a mutual friend, he said.
Patrushev said he had no idea Rakhmatulim was missing until Rakhmatulim’s ex-wife contacted him in mid-April to ask if he’d heard from him at all.
Since he knew that Rakhmatulim had been travelling a lot since COVID-19 restrictions eased, Patrushev said he wasn’t worried initially.
He said that Rakhmatulim’s ex-wife told him she was shunted between different police departments when she initially brought her concerns forward, and that a case wasn’t truly opened until mid-May. By then, Patrushev said he was attempting to find out what had happened.
According to Patrushev, who said he has spoken to hotel employees as well as authorities, Rakhmatulim checked out of his hotel on April 9, and the last anyone saw of him, he was attending a yoga class at the hotel. Local news outlet Fiji Sun also reported he was last seen at a yoga class.
A handful of Rakhmatulim's belongings, including a bag, were found after he went missing. (HANDOUT / Alexander Patrushev)
It was meant to be a short trip originally, Patrushev said.
“I know that he had a (plane) ticket, April 10, from Fiji,” he said.
But authorities confirmed to Patrushev in June that Rakhmatulim never made the flight, he said.
It’s still unclear what happened to Rakhmatulim.
“The main version is ‘he drown(ed) and well, that happens on Fiji everywhere’,” Patrushev said.
But he’s hoping that pressure from Canadian authorities might help to get some more concrete answers.
“His main luggage was not found anywhere,” he said, adding that there are inconsistencies that give him pause.
Rakhmatulim doesn’t have family members in Canada, Patrushev said, which he believes contributed to the delay in confirming that he was missing.
Patrushev said Rakhmatulim once let him live with him for free for a month when Patrushev was graduating.
“He was a good friend,” he said. “It was kind of why I do some stuff to find him.”
The Fiji Police Force have asked for anyone with information on the case to reach out to them.
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