Iranian women’s football squad member changes mind on Australia asylum offer, to return home

Follow our live coverage here.

SYDNEY – The Australian police helped two more members of the Iranian women’s football delegation slip their minders to claim asylum, but one has changed her mind and decided to go back to Iran, Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on March 11.

Mr Burke announced in Parliament the squad member’s decision to return home, after five players from the team were granted asylum a day earlier.

A player and a support staff member accepted the government’s open offer of aid on the evening of March 10.

“One of the two who had made the decision to stay last night had spoken to some of the teammates who had left, and had changed her mind,” Mr Burke told Parliament.

“In Australia, people can change their minds, people are able to travel. And so, we respect the context in which she has made that decision.”

It was not immediately clear who had decided to return to Iran.

Mr Burke said the rest of the players have been moved to a safe location after the member contacted the Iranian embassy, giving away their location.

The two additional members of the delegation – 21-year-old striker Mohaddeseh Zolfi and support staff member Zahra Soltan Moshkehkar – were removed from the rest of the team with the aid of Australian Federal Police before they boarded a domestic flight to Sydney.

Before leaving the country, Australian officials separated the remaining team from their Iranian minders at Sydney Airport and informed them of their options before they flew out of Australia. All those who made it to the airport elected to return to Iran.

Concerns about the players’ safety grew after Iranian state television labelled the team “wartime traitors” for refusing to sing the national anthem during the Women’s Asian Cup match in Australia earlier in March.

“What we made sure of was that there was no rushing, there was no pressure. Everything was about ensuring the dignity for those individuals to make a choice,” Mr Burke said during a media briefing in Canberra.

The Iranian team’s campaign in the tournament started just as the US and Israel launched air strikes on Iran, killing the Islamic republic’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They were eliminated from the tournament on March 8.

A group of Iranians living in Australia gathered to protest against the Iranian government and surrounded the players’ bus on the Gold Coast when they left the hotel for the airport.

Many also turned up at the Sydney Airport on the evening of March 10 while the players were being transferred to the international terminal, television footage showed.

The office of Iran’s general prosecutor said on March 10 that the remaining members of the team were invited back to the country “with peace and confidence”, Iranian media reported. REUTERS