{"id":476077,"date":"2026-03-15T00:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T00:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/476077\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T00:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T00:26:09","slug":"three-more-iranian-womens-football-squad-members-return-home-after-being-granted-asylum-in-australia-australia-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/476077\/","title":{"rendered":"Three more Iranian women\u2019s football squad members return home after being granted asylum in Australia | Australia news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three more members of the Iranian women\u2019s football squad have left Australia, leaving behind teammates who sought asylum after playing in the Women\u2019s Asian Cup.<\/p>\n

The home affairs minister, Tony Burke<\/a>, said on Sunday morning the trio had decided to join the rest of the team in Iran, after being issued special protection visas to stay in Australia.<\/p>\n

The decision means just three of the seven squad members who had sought asylum will remain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The team were labeled \u201cwartime traitors\u201d after players refused to sing the country\u2019s national anthem <\/a>before a match at the tournament. Their plight attracted international attention and even calls for support from the US president, Donald Trump, last week, amid the escalating Middle East war.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter telling Australian officials they had made this decision the players were given repeated chances to talk about their options,\u201d Burke said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Australian government can ensure that opportunities are provided and communicated, we cannot remove the context in which the players are making these incredibly difficult decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burke said the Australian government had done everything possible to make sure the women were provided with the chance for a safe future in Australia.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Tasnim News Agency said the latest three to leave Australia were two players and a support staff member. The three were \u201creturning to the warm embrace of their family and homeland\u201d, the news outlet said in a statement.<\/p>\n

On Monday there was a tense standoff at the team hotel on the Gold Coast in Queensland, where anti-Iranian regime protesters gathered as the players prepared to board a bus taking them to the airport for their return flight to Iran.<\/p>\n

There were chaotic scenes at the Royal Pines hotel as government minders rushed into the lobby looking for the women understood to be seeking protection in Australia.<\/p>\n

\"ProtestersProtesters try to block bus as Iranian women’s football team depart Gold Coast hotel \u2013 video<\/p>\n

One player changed her mind on Wednesday, and contacted Iranian embassy officials. Others returned home with team officials via flights to Malaysia, and are still believed to be in Kuala Lumpur awaiting their return to Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralians should be proud that it was in our country that these women experienced a nation presenting them with genuine choices and interacted with authorities seeking to help them,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n

At the same time as facilitating asylum requests for the players, the government rushed through new laws to stop some temporary visa holders coming to Australia and seeking to stay permanently because of the Middle East war.<\/p>\n

The new laws can be used to prevent Iranian tourists from travelling to Australia if their visa was issued before the US and Israel attacked Tehran, and where there is a concern they might overstay their visa or apply for protection while in Australia.<\/a><\/p>\n

The federal government has offered strong support for the US and Israeli-led bombings in Iran, and is providing military assistance to the United Arab Emirates as part of efforts to defend against retaliatory strikes launched by the regime in Tehran.<\/p>\n

With Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three more members of the Iranian women\u2019s football squad have left Australia, leaving behind teammates who sought asylum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-476077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}