Tears, jeers and a heavy police presence as Iranian soccer players arrive in Sydney

Jubilation over the granting of humanitarian visas to five members of the Iranian women’s soccer team after a dramatic escape from their minders has been tempered by fear for the remaining players’ safety if they return home to possible persecution in Iran.

Members of the Iranian women’s soccer team flew out of Coolangatta airport to Sydney, after one player appeared to be pulled on board a bus by teammates, raising expectations the team could fly out of Australia as early as Tuesday night.

Supporters unsuccessfully tried to block the path of a bus carrying the team, including by lying in front of the vehicle and chanting “Save our girls”. Police attempted to move them on, and the bus eventually headed for the airport with a police escort.

Crowds also waited for the team as they arrived at Sydney Airport on Tuesday night, where members of the Australian-Iranian community shone flashlights from the terminal as the players, coaches and officials were taken from their Qantas plane to an airport transfer bus waiting on the tarmac.

About 12 Australian Federal Police officers watched the travelling party disembark from the plane to the bus, which was escorted by several police and Sydney Airport vehicles.

Iranian Australians made posters encouraging the players to seek assistance from the federal government if they wished to remain in Australia after five of their teammates made an audacious escape from the rest of the team on Monday night and have been granted humanitarian visas to remain here.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier on Tuesday invited more players to seek asylum in Australia as advocates urged authorities to speedily detain any regime handlers and even pleaded with airline staff to block them from flying out of the country.

The players who escaped have been identified as captain Zahra Ghanbari and her teammates Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramezanizadeh and Mona Hamoudi.

The day after five members of the Lionesses national soccer team fled the hotel seeking asylum in Australia, a bus carrying the other 15 team members and support staff left their accommodation on the Gold Coast about 1pm on Tuesday local time (2pm in Sydney and Melbourne).

Players were seen coming in and out of the lobby at the RACV Royal Pines Resort for two hours, with the entire team leaving the hotel and re-entering after about half an hour.

One player appeared to be pulled onto the bus by her teammates.

Earlier, Albanese celebrated the five players’ escapes, saying they should feel at home in Australia.

“We’re willing to provide assistance to other women in the team, noting that this is a very delicate situation and it is up to them,” he said.

“But we say to them: ‘if you want our help, help is here and we will provide that’.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns said any of the players who defected would be “warmly welcomed” in his state, saying they would be embraced by the large Iranian diaspora.

“They are some of the most generous, loving, big-hearted people that we have,” he said.

Speculation swirled on Tuesday morning that more players had separated from the team, known as the Lionesses, but this was forcefully denied by the Department of Home Affairs.

Opposition home affairs spokesman Jono Duniam said he was concerned by the vision of a player being pushed onto the team bus.

“The Coalition worked with the government to ensure that visa options were available to all members of the Iranian women’s soccer team,” he said.

“If any coercion is occurring, authorities must come down with the full force of the law.”

Albanese said he had spoken to Donald Trump at 2am after the US president angrily complained on social media that Australia had not done enough to protect the women.

Trump’s call for Australia to offer asylum to the women came after five members of the team had already escaped and this masthead and others had reported they were being protected by police.

“We had a very positive discussion,” Albanese said of his early morning call with Trump.

“He was concerned about the Iranian women in the soccer team and their welfare and their safety if they returned home. He conveyed that to me. I was able to convey to him the action that we’d undertaken over the previous 48 hours and that five of the team had asked for assistance and had received it and were safely located.”

Albanese continued: “Assistance remains available for the other members of the team, but it, of course, is a decision for them. If they make a decision to ask for support, they will receive it.”

Human rights advocate Sara Rafiee urged police to take in any handlers for questioning and for their visas to be revoked, given the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been designated as a terror organisation.

This would give the players more agency to decide whether they wanted to stay in Australia or return to Iran, she said in a call supported by other Iranian-Australian community leaders.

“We are grateful to the Australian government for acting swiftly in granting visas to the five Lionesses,” she said.

“At the same time, we support calls for the government to immediately revoke the visas of any accompanying Islamic Republic officials or security personnel involved in threatening or intimidating these players, and to place them in immigration detention while their conduct and any potential links to the IRGC are investigated on national security grounds and for issuing threats and intimidation.”

Rafiee said the situation was similar to domestic violence cases in which victims are separated from their partner so they are not subjected to coercive control.

“The safety of these women must come first,” she said.

Members of the Iranian diaspora have named the official Mohammad Rahman Salari as a handler who has been supervising the players while in Australia.

Liberal frontbencher Julian Leeser said: “The government should immediately revoke the visas of any accompanying security personnel involved in threats or intimidation against these brave women, and put them in immigration detention now.”

Branding the regime in Tehran “terrorists and murderers”, Leeser said, “They have killed 30,000 of their own citizens over the last month. We must take the fears of retribution seriously.”

Leeser said every member of the team should have the opportunity to speak individually with an Australian Border Force agent or other government official and to seek asylum if they want it.

“Subject to all the normal security checks, we should offer the women of the Iranian team an alternative to returning to Iran,” he said.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the players who escaped were happy to be identified, emphasising they regarded themselves as athletes, not political activists.

Burke, who raced to Brisbane to assist the escape effort, told reporters: “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 the maximum number of opportunities to directly seek that assistance.”

He continued: “I say to the other members of the team, the same opportunity is there.

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

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