{"id":532172,"date":"2026-03-11T00:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T00:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/532172\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T00:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T00:52:13","slug":"two-more-granted-protection-in-australia-after-dramatic-airport-scenes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/532172\/","title":{"rendered":"Two more granted protection in Australia after dramatic airport scenes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Matthew<\/p>\n

Updated March 11, 2026 \u2014 11:18am,first published March 11, 2026 \u2014 10:53am<\/p>\n

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Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has confirmed two additional members of the Iranian women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Two women – a player and a member of the team\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The player who decided to stay on Tuesday has been identified as Mohaddeseh Zolfi, a 21-year-old forward.<\/p>\n

The support staffer is Zahra Soltan Moshkehkar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no way we were going to see people make it all the way to a plane without having them away from every minder,\u201d Burke told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll 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.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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\u2019t take away.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t sure which way that person would go. That individual, though, ultimately made their own decision [to leave],\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there was also, from our perspective, no pressure to have to get on the plane at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Iranian women\u2019s soccer team arrive in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday morning.Amber Schultz<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia\u2019s objective here was not to force people to make a particular decision. We\u2019re not that sort of nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Anyone who played a role in trying to intimidate the women into returning to Iran would not be welcome in the country, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some people leaving Australia who I am glad they\u2019re no longer in Australia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Burke said the government had rejected visa applications from some officials before the Women\u2019s Asian Cup began because of their ties to the hardline regime in Tehran.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who are connected to the IRGC were not granted visas,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n

The group, known as the Lionesses, touched down in Kuala Lumpur from Sydney just before 8am<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There, they were met by Iran\u2019s ambassador to Malaysia, Valiollah Mohammadi Nasrabadi, at the exit of the plane\u2019s walkway.<\/p>\n

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"MatthewMatthew Knott<\/a> is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated March 11, 2026 \u2014 11:18am,first published March 11, 2026 \u2014 10:53am Save You have reached your maximum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-532172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}