AWOL Sierra Leone athletes given visas

SYDNEY – Six runaway athletes from Sierra Leone’s team to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games were yesterday granted temporary visas to remain in Australia, while Cameroon revealed that nine members of its team were unaccounted for.

In all, 14 Sierra Leone athletes went missing from the Commonwealth Games last week, apparently in hopes of remaining in Australia after the event closed on Sunday. Police in the northern Sydney suburb of Harbord found six members of the team at a local home early yesterday and passed them on to immigration officials.”The three men and three women from the Sierra Leone team are believed to have been there for the past three nights,” police said in a statement.Authorities revoked the 14 missing athletes’ visas as of midnight but following interviews with immigration officials the six who were found Monday were granted visas allowing them to remain in the country until April 13.”We are able to confirm that six members of the Sierra Leone team…have been granted bridging visas to allow them time to make visa applications,” an Immigration Department spokesman said.It was not yet known under what grounds they would apply for visas, he said.Meanwhile the Cameroon team reported nine of its athletes missing just two hours before the Games’ closing ceremony Sunday night.Their identities were not immediately released.In addition to the athletes from the two west African nations, Tanzanian boxer Omari Idd Kimweri and Bangladeshi 400m runner Tawhidul Mohammad Islam have also been reported missing.Only the Sierra Leone athletes are being sought by the authorities as the revoking of their visas meant they were remaining in the country illegally.The runaway athletes from the other countries are entitled to stay in Australia for the next month before their visas expire.The Sierra Leone government strongly condemned its runaway athletes, saying they had brought disgrace on their nation.The runaways made up two-thirds of the poor country’s 21-strong Commonwealth Games squad.The missing were believed to be three members the women’s 4×400 m track relay team, two boxers, two cyclists, a weightlifter and six other members of the athletics team.It was not the first time athletes from Sierra Leone have sought to avoid returning home following an international sporting event.Twenty-one members out of a team of 30 failed to return to Sierra Leone following the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.-Nampa-AFPPolice in the northern Sydney suburb of Harbord found six members of the team at a local home early yesterday and passed them on to immigration officials.”The three men and three women from the Sierra Leone team are believed to have been there for the past three nights,” police said in a statement.Authorities revoked the 14 missing athletes’ visas as of midnight but following interviews with immigration officials the six who were found Monday were granted visas allowing them to remain in the country until April 13.”We are able to confirm that six members of the Sierra Leone team…have been granted bridging visas to allow them time to make visa applications,” an Immigration Department spokesman said.It was not yet known under what grounds they would apply for visas, he said.Meanwhile the Cameroon team reported nine of its athletes missing just two hours before the Games’ closing ceremony Sunday night.Their identities were not immediately released.In addition to the athletes from the two west African nations, Tanzanian boxer Omari Idd Kimweri and Bangladeshi 400m runner Tawhidul Mohammad Islam have also been reported missing.Only the Sierra Leone athletes are being sought by the authorities as the revoking of their visas meant they were remaining in the country illegally.The runaway athletes from the other countries are entitled to stay in Australia for the next month before their visas expire.The Sierra Leone government strongly condemned its runaway athletes, saying they had brought disgrace on their nation.The runaways made up two-thirds of the poor country’s 21-strong Commonwealth Games squad.The missing were believed to be three members the women’s 4×400 m track relay team, two boxers, two cyclists, a weightlifter and six other members of the athletics team.It was not the first time athletes from Sierra Leone have sought to avoid returning home following an international sporting event.Twenty-one members out of a team of 30 failed to return to Sierra Leone following the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.-Nampa-AFP