Double standard claim as refugees plea for urgent help

Ferdos had mixed emotions when Australia granted asylum to Iranian footballers; He was relieved by their safety, but confused by the fact that his own visa application had been in limbo for 14 years.

The 23-year-old Iranian refugee was sent to Nauru when he was 10 and detained with his family for five years, before being transferred to Australia in 2018 due to his brother’s illness.

She completed high school in Australia and works as an employment social worker, but her own situation remains volatile.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke granted asylum to a handful of women from the Iranian football team, who were in Australia for the Asian Cup in early March, out of fear that they would be persecuted in their homeland for not singing the national anthem before the match.

“I’m really happy that Australians have given such a beautiful woman the opportunity to stay here and feel safe,” Ferdos told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

“It was really hard for me to understand how the government had the authority to do this in less than 48 hours, but for us it’s been years and decades.”

According to the Refugee Resource Center, approximately 700 Iranians left in limbo have been identified as refugees.

“It’s time for Australia to show them the protection they deserve,” said Jana Favero, the center’s deputy CEO, with Ferdos, whose surname was not used for security reasons because his family is in Iran.

Advocates for Afghan refugees also pointed out double standards regarding the rapid processing of players.

Ghairat Jawahiri’s application for a humanitarian visa was rejected after years of waiting, despite hiding with her family in Pakistan for fear of being deported to face the wrath of the Taliban.

During the Afghan war, he helped NATO forces track the terrorist group’s camps in the mountains and was captured and tortured when the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, before fleeing to Pakistan.

Her daughter Namja was working as an activist in the human rights and women’s rights sector, and the Taliban was brutally attacking women’s rights, making her return to Afghanistan very risky.

He said he believed the Taliban cooperated with the Afghan government and international forces between 2001 and 2021 due to its numerous media interviews and human rights projects with international organizations during the Afghanistan war.

Marie Sellstrom, national president of Rural Australian Refugees, who is helping the family, offered to resettle them in Shepparton.

“While I am pleased that Iranian women are receiving support, this makes nonsense of the Australian government’s response to the Jawahiri family that ‘Australia does not have the capacity to accommodate them’,” he said.

“Rural communities can readily support the Jawahiri family; they were, and still are, at least as much, if not more, in danger than Iranian women.

“The difference is they are not popular sports identities.”

Ms Sellstrom also highlighted Farzana, who remained in hiding in Iran after being refused to join her family in Shepparton because she was 24, not 22.

Ms. Sellstrom said her father was too old to be included in the family reunification visa by the time his application was submitted.

Afghan women’s rights organization Azadi-e Zan represented many ministers’ offices and compiled a list of high-risk women and families.

Home Secretary Stephanie Foster told a parliamentary hearing in February that the department could identify “individuals who may need to be removed from the queue due to particular circumstances” if a declaration was made by a minister.

“For example, we may have families where their daughters are about to reach an age where they can’t travel with their families, and if we process these things as normal, there could be an adverse outcome,” he said.

Ms. Favero said the system needed reform because agencies could not be expected to provide case-by-case representation for hundreds of cases.

Yes More than 300,000 refugee and humanitarian visa applicationsMore than 270,000 of them, including those offshore, represent unprecedented demand due to increasing global instability, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

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