WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Two more members of theIranian women's soccer teamwere granted asylum in Australia before their teammates departed, the country's Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday.
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The pair has been reunited withfive playerswho were granted humanitarian visas a day earlier, Burke told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday. One of those in the later group was a player and the other a team staffer, Burke said, and both sought asylum before their teammates were transported to the airport.
The rest of the team's departure from Sydney, Australia to return to Iran late Tuesday local time happened during fraught and outraged protest at the team's hotel and at the airport, where Iranian Australians sought to prevent the women from leaving the country, citing fears for their safety in Iran.
Their flight departed late Tuesday.
Burke said that as the women passed through security at Australia's border, they were each taken aside individually by Australian officials and interpreters, without minders present, and were made offers of asylum. Some called their families in Iran to discuss the offer, he added, but no further members of the delegation decided to remain in Australia.
"They were given a choice," he said. "In that situation what we made sure of was that there was no rushing, there was no pressure."
Those who have sought asylum received temporary humanitarian visas, which have a pathway to permanent residency in Australia, Burke said. He added that some members of the delegation were not offered asylum because they had connections toIran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
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The Iranian team arrived in Australia for the Women's Asian Cup last month, before theIran warbegan on Feb. 28. The team wasknocked out of the tournamentover the weekend and faced the prospect of returning to a country under bombardment.
Iranian groups in Australia had urged the government to prevent the women from leaving the country after the team drew widespread news coverage in Australia when players didn't sing the Iranian anthem before their first match. The players didn't speak publicly about their decision not to sing and later saluted and sang the anthem before their other games.
It was not clear exactly how many people were in the delegation, but an official squad list named 26 players, plus coaching and other staff.
Burke rejected suggestions that Australian officials should have done more to prevent the women's departure.
"Australia's objective here was not to force people to make a particular decision," he said. "We're not that sort of nation."
The minister said he had viewed widely-published footage that appeared to show one of the women being lead by the hand from the team's hotel on Queensland's Gold Coast to their bus by her teammates. Whether that constituted coercion was a matter for local Australian police, Burke said.
The Iranian team became popular figures in Australia throughout the tournament. The premier football club in the city of Brisbane, the nearest major city to where the women were based for the tournament, posted to social media Wednesday inviting the women who had sought asylum in Australian to train with their club.