Australia's home affairs minister says Australian taxpayers may be forced to pay millions of dollars for the nearly 250 athletes who overstayed their visit from this year's Commonwealth Games.  Almost 200 people are seeking asylum, and another 50 athletes and team officials have stayed illegally. Greg Navarro has more. 

For most of the thousands of athletes who gathered in Brisbane earlier this year, the Commonwealth Games served as a vehicle to showcase their talents. For some - the event was an opportunity to seek asylum in Australia.

PETER DUTTON, AUSTRALIAN HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER "There are a number of people that have overstayed their visa conditions that were here to either compete in the Commonwealth Games or were here as officials or part of the media entourage from particular countries."

Australian officials say almost 200 people, most from African nations, have applied for various protection visas and are allowed to remain while their claims are being processed. Another 50 people, including some members of the team from Cameroon, remain missing and are in the country illegally. One athlete has reportedly posted his run from Australian authorities on Facebook.

PETER DUTTON, AUSTRALIAN HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER "Well, my message to the 50 is that the Australian public won't be taken for a ride. We aren't going to tolerate people that come here on visas that have been issued in good faith and then take advantage of our system. We want to see those 50 people present themselves to the Australian Border Force because if they don't, Border Force will find out where they are."

JOCK COLLINS, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY "To me it is not surprising. We have of course, the precedent of the 1956 Melbourne Games where a number of people tried to stay over and in fact, a number of people were successful."

And at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, a number of athletes and team officials sought asylum in Australia.

While Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says the latest round of people overstaying their visits will cost taxpayers millions of dollars, analysts point out that those costs are far outweighed by the money generated by tourism in a country with open borders. Australia has some of the toughest border protection policies in the world. It routinely intercepts boats filled with people seeking asylum, and sends them to offshore detention centres with the promise of never making it to Australia.

But the number of people seeking asylum here each year is relatively small compared to the number of temporary and permanent migrants applying for visas.

JOCK COLLINS, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY "We have this term in Australia called dog whistling, that you make a call about an issue, these people are overstaying, etc., but what you really are saying is we'll stop the boats, refugees, we are tough on the borders, the other mob aren't - remember we are going to have a federal election in Australia in the next 12 months."

GREG NAVARRO, SYDNEY "The publicity surrounding the sheer number of athletes, coaches and team officials from this year's Commonwealth Games who have simply walked away from the event highlights a problem not only facing Australia, but many other countries as well."

University of Technology Sydney social economics professor Jock Collins says there is nothing countries can do to prevent it, not if they want to reap the economic rewards.

JOCK COLLINS, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY "If you want global mobility of people, you want tourists to come, you want temporary migrants to come, you want to have international sporting events in Australia - they pull dollars into Australia - so this is a necessary part of being part of a globally mobile world."

Dutton says if the athletes are found to not qualify for official protection status, they'll be deported at the first available opportunity. Greg Navarro, CGTN, Sydney.