Two more granted protection in Australia after dramatic airport scenes
Updated ,first published
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has confirmed two additional members of the Iranian women’s soccer delegation have been granted asylum, while one player wavered until the last minute before eventually deciding to board a flight out of the country in dramatic scenes at Sydney Airport.
Burke said that Home Affairs officials had met privately with all the players and support staff to explain their legal rights to seek protection in Australia before their departure to Kuala Lumpur late on Tuesday night.
Two women – a player and a member of the team’s support staff – stayed behind in Brisbane on Tuesday and have since been reunited with the five players who escaped from their handlers on Monday night.
“There was no way we were going to see people make it all the way to a plane without having them away from every minder,” Burke told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
“All the players remaining and most of the support people were taken into interview rooms without any minders present, simply themselves and the department of home affairs and an interpreter, and they were given a choice in that situation.
“What we made sure of was there was no rushing, there was no pressure. Everything was about ensuring the dignity for those obviously the one thing, the one pressure we couldn’t take away.”
Burke said one player had boarded the flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur at the last minute because she was speaking to family members in Iran for advice on what to do.
“We weren’t sure which way that person would go. That individual, though, ultimately made their own decision [to leave],” Burke said.
“There is a lot of work, including me sending messages back and forth from my plane, trying to find the right numbers, and ultimately getting somebody to call a home affairs number from overseas so that the conversation could happen. But the people who that instructor wanted to talk to were all made available.
“And there was also, from our perspective, no pressure to have to get on the plane at all.”
Burke said he had told exhausted and dejected Home Affairs officials that they had not failed because more women had not elected to stay in Australia.
“Australia’s objective here was not to force people to make a particular decision. We’re not that sort of nation,” he said.
Burke said he was glad some of the officials travelling with the delegation had returned to Iran as he did not believe they were of sufficient character to receive asylum in Australia.
Anyone who played a role in trying to intimidate the women into returning to Iran would not be welcome in the country, he said.
“There were some people leaving Australia who I am glad they’re no longer in Australia,” he said.
Burke said the government had rejected visa applications from some officials before the Women’s Asian Cup began because of their ties to the hardline regime in Tehran.
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