Australia grants asylum to 7 Iranian women soccer players

Dubai: Australia has granted asylum to a total of seven members of Iran’s women’s national football team who were competing in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, after they were labelled “traitors” in their home country.

This develops as two more members of the Iranian women’s soccer team were granted asylum in Australia before their teammates departed the country, Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday.

The women were granted humanitarian visas in Australia after an initial five players sought asylum earlier, Burke told reporters in Canberra.

One of those in the later group was a player and the other a team staffer, the official said, and both sought asylum before their teammates were transported to the airport.

The decision aims to protect the players following controversy during the tournament, where some athletes initially refused to sing Iran’s national anthem.

The incident occurred during Iran’s opening match against South Korea on Monday, when several players stood silently during the anthem.

The match took place just two days after the outbreak of a war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran.

The Iranian delegation, consisting of 26 members, had arrived in Australia shortly before the conflict escalated. Iranian state television later described the players as “traitors in wartime”.

During their second match against hosts Australia on the Gold Coast on Thursday, the players saluted and sang the national anthem, repeating the gesture again before their game against the Philippines on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump was among those who urged Australia to grant the players asylum, citing serious concerns for their safety if they were forced to return to Iran.

Five players, including team captain Zahra Ghanbari, reportedly left the team hotel at night to seek protection from Australian authorities.

At least two other members of the delegation later applied to remain in Australia, according to local media reports.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government had been preparing for the situation.

“Australians have been moved by the circumstances of these brave women,” he said. “They are now safe here and should feel at home.”

Tony Burke, Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs, said the government held confidential discussions with the players for several days before moving them to a secure location after they left the team hotel on the Gold Coast.

Images circulated showing the athletes gathered around a table as Burke signed documents granting them special visas allowing them to remain in Australia on humanitarian ground.

The rest of the team’s departure from Sydney, Australia to return to Iran late Tuesday local time, happened during fraught and outraged protest at the delegation's hotel and at the airport.

There, Iranian Australians sought to prevent the women from leaving the country, citing fears for their safety in Iran.

Their flight departed late Tuesday.

The Iranian team arrived in Australia for the Women’s Asian Cup last month, before the Iran war began on Feb. 28.

The team was knocked out of the tournament over the weekend and faced the prospect of returning to a country under bombardment.

Australia's government Wednesday disclosed their final attempts to ensure each member of the team could consider an asylum offer.

Burke said that as the women passed through security at Australia’s border, they were taken aside individually to speak to Australian officials and interpreters, without minders present.

“Everything was about ensuring the dignity for those individuals to make a choice,” he said. “We couldn't take away the pressure of the context for these individuals, of what might have been said to them beforehand, what pressures they might have felt there were on other family members.”

Those who sought asylum received temporary humanitarian visas, which would lead to permanent residency in Australia, Burke said. He added that some of the delegation were not offered visas because they had connections to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

The minister said he had viewed widely-published footage that appeared to show a woman being led by the hand by her teammates from the team’s hotel on Queensland’s Gold Coast to their bus. Whether that constituted coercion was a matter for local Australian police, Burke said.

The Iranian team became popular figures in Australia during the tournament. The premier football club in the city of Brisbane, the nearest major city to where the women were based, posted to social media Tuesday inviting the women remaining in Australian to train with their club.

(With inputs from AP)