A total of six members of the Iranian women's soccer team will remain in Australia before the rest of the team departed Sydney, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday, reports AP.
One of the squad members earlier granted asylum changed her mind and planned to return to Iran.
The names of the seven team members who were issued humanitarian visas to stay in Australia have been widely published — including by Burke — and it was not immediately clear which of the women had reversed her decision.
The rest of the team's departure from Sydney, Australia late Tuesday happened during fraught and outraged protests at the delegation's hotel and at the airport. Iranian Australians sought to prevent the women from leaving the country, citing fears for their safety in Iran.
Burke on Wednesday morning announced that one player and a team staffer had joined five athletes who had decided to stay in Australia. Hours later, however, he told Australia's federal parliament in Canberra that one of the women had spoken to her departed teammates and decided to return home too.
"She was advised by her teammates and coach to contact the Iranian embassy and to get collected," Burke said. "As a result of that, it meant that the Iranian embassy now knew the location of where everybody was."
The six women remaining in Australia were immediately moved to a different location, the minister said.
Those who sought asylum received temporary humanitarian visas, which would lead to permanent residency in Australia, Burke said. He added that some of the delegation were not offered visas because they had connections to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
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