'Missing athletes' handed warning

Visiting athletes are issued sporting visas for the Games

Missing Commonwealth Games athletes have been told they will need a "bona fide" reason to seek to stay by Australian officials.

Another four athletes from Sierra Leone have disappeared since Thursday taking the total to have fled to 11.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said each case would be handled individually if anybody sought asylum.

"We don't give blanket asylum to people who leave sporting teams in this country," Howard told Australian radio.

"I don't want any other athletes who might be thinking along those lines to imagine all they have to do is stay behind and we will keep you," Howard added.

Officially, they have not breached any immigration rules because they have been issued with special visas for the Games, valid for another month.

It is not the nicest thing to do to the host country and your team mates to walk out Sierra Leone team spokesman Robert Green

Most of the missing Sierra Leoneans are members of the athletics team, while another is a weightlifter. Together, they make up about a third of their country's Commonwealth Games contingent.

Sierra Leone team officials would not identify the missing athletes but said their disappearance had "dampened the team spirit".

"Obviously there is a feeling that it is not the nicest thing to do to the host country and your team-mates to walk out," said Sierra Leone team spokesman Robert Green.

Special visas

DISAPPEARING ATHLETES 2002 Commonwealth Games: 21 Sierra Leoneans, 5 Bangladeshis, 1 Pakistani missing in Manchester 2002 Asian Games: 12 Nepalese, 3 Sri Lankans and 1 Mongolian missing in S Korea 2000 Sydney Olympics: 80 officials and athletes overstay visas, 11 cases unresolved

They have joined what has become a growing list of unaccounted-for athletes.

Earlier this week a boxer from Tanzania and a 400m runner from Bangladesh went missing, sparking fears they would try to remain in Australia illegally.

Australia's Immigration Department said the athletes' special Games visas expire on 26 April, and they would not become involved until after that date.

In the meantime, the police are treating the case as a missing persons investigation and have urged anyone with information about the missing athletes to contact them.

During the last Commonwealth Games in the UK city of Manchester more than 20 athletes from Sierra Leone disappeared.