Australia grants five Iranian women football players asylum

Five Iranian women’s football players have been granted asylum by the Australian government.

Early on Tuesday morning, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke revealed the five players had been granted humanitarian visas and the same opportunity would be available to the rest of the team for those who wished to stay in Australia.

“The Iranian women’s soccer team are welcome to stay in Australia, they’re safe here and they should feel at home here,” Burke said.

“There has been a lot of work that’s been going on in recent days to make sure that we had the maximum number of opportunities for these women to know that they could seek assistance if they wanted to and to have maximum number of opportunities to directly seek that assistance.

“This is my second night here in Brisbane, I was here the night before as well, and at that point we had conversations happening with some of the women but we didn’t know whether any would seek assistance.”

Burke said that “during the course of yesterday, it was made clear that there were five women who wanted to be able to stay in Australia”.

“They were moved to a safe location by the Australian Federal Police, and last night I met with them at that location,” he said.

“I signed off last night for their applications to go onto humanitarian visas and a little bit after 1.30am this morning the processing was completed by the Department of Home Affairs.”

“Australia has taken the Iranian women’s soccer team into our hearts, these women are tremendously popular in Australia.

“We realise they are in a terribly difficult situation with the decisions that they’re making, but the opportunity will continue to be there for them to talk to Australian officials if they wish to.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said officials had been preparing “for some time” and the home affairs minister travelled to Queensland to arrange the move.

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

“Once it was made clear these women wanted assistance, the Australian federal police moved them to a safe location where they remain.”

It was revealed Albanese had a middle-of-the-night call with US President Donald Trump.

“I just spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, of Australia, concerning the Iranian National Women’s Soccer Team. He’s on it!” Trump said on Truth Social just before 3am (AEDT).

“Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way.

“Some, however, feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return.

“In any event, the Prime Minister is doing a very good job having to do with this rather delicate situation.

“God bless Australia!”

Shadow education minister Julian Leeser has called on the security of the Iranian football team to be removed from Australia.

“I also want us to boot from this country, any of the handlers and Iranian security people that have been harassing and intimidating these women. They have no place in this country at all,” Leeser said.

“They may well have links … I don’t want to see them in this country for one more minute. I don’t think that they have any place being here if they’ve harassed and intimidated those women and prevented them from exercising their rights.

“These are incredibly brave women. We know what the Iranian regime does to women.”

The five women from the Iranian team who were being protected by Australian Federal Police were Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Ghanbari, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramazanzadeh, and Mona Hamoudi, Iranian Society of Queensland vice president Hadi Karimi confirmed on social media.

It comes after a joint letter from 13 Australian community and civil society organisations had been sent to Burke urging the government to ensure members of Iran’s women’s national football team would not forced to depart Australia while credible fears for their safety remain.

The letter, signed by more than a dozen groups including Australian United Solidarity for IRAN (AUSIRAN), the Iranian Women’s Association and Amnesty National Iran Network, expressed “grave concern” for the players’ safety following their apparent silent protest during the national anthem.

In their opening match of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, members of the team remained silent during the Iranian national anthem. Following that match, Iranian state media publicly condemned the players in extreme terms, with commentary characterising their conduct as betrayal during wartime and calling for them to be treated as traitors.

According to the letter, credible reporting has also raised concerns that regime-connected personnel are embedded with the delegation, that players are not allowed to move freely, and that their communications are restricted.

The organisations argued the situation cannot be separated from the wider crisis unfolding in Iran following Israeli and US strikes on the Iranian regime.

“The current wartime environment has intensified repression, fear, and the risks faced by anyone publicly perceived by the Islamic Republic as disloyal and a ‘traitor’,” the letter stated.

“The players are not simply visiting athletes. They are women under the authority of a barbaric authoritarian state that has a long record of punishing perceived disobedience, including through intimidation, coercion, torture and reprisals against family members.”

The groups called on the government to provide immediate access to independent legal advice, trauma-informed support, interpreters and confidential protection pathways to each player on a private and individual basis.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia “stands in solidarity” with the Iranian women’s football team.

“It has been really moving for Australians to see them in Australia,” she said.

“We know this regime has brutally murdered many of its own people. We know this regime has brutally oppressed many Iranian women and we stand in solidarity with the men and women of Iran, particularly Iranian women and girls.

Exiled Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi warned that the footballers were under “significant pressure” and face an “ongoing threat from the Islamic Republic”.

“As a result of their brave act of civil disobedience in refusing to sing the current regime’s national anthem, they face dire consequences should they return to Iran,” he posted on X.

“I call on the Australian government to ensure their safety and give them any and all needed support.”

Following Sunday evening’s 2-0 loss to the Philippines, which ended their Women’s Asian Cup campaign, around 50 protesters surrounded the Iranian team bus as it left Gold Coast’s Robina Stadium. The demonstrators chanted “let them go” and struck the side of the bus, leading to police intervention.

One of the women on the bus appeared to make the international sign of “help” from the window, an apparent SOS message.

The global organisation representing professional footballers, FIFPRO, says it has been unable to directly contact the players, but FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) are currently involved.

“We’re here to support in any way we can and to make sure that we’re continuing to put the players’ interests first and making sure that their safety is everybody’s absolute priority right now,” FIFPRO Asia/Oceania President Beau Busch said.

“And we are satisfied that is the case at the moment, but we need to continue to work towards the best possible outcome.”

Busch said FIFPRO had also been liaising with the Australian government.

“We’ve been asking them to work on the players having agency,” he said.

“There may be players that want to return. There may be some players within the group that would like to seek asylum, would like to stay in Australia for longer.

“There may be some that are incredibly concerned about the potential journey home.”