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Trump urges PM to grant asylum to Iranian soccer team as five escape handlers

A U.S. president publicly pressed Australia’s prime minister to grant asylum as Australian authorities were urged to treat alleged coercion of athletes as a modern-slavery emergency.

Executive

Mar 9, 2026

Sources

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-10/iranian-womens-football-escape-asylum/106434542

Summary

Five Iranian women’s national football players in Australia evaded team handlers, are safe with Queensland police, and are seeking asylum. A U.S. president publicly pressed Australia’s prime minister to grant asylum to the entire team while an Australian anti-slavery commissioner escalated the matter to federal authorities. The case now turns on whether Australian law enforcement and immigration systems treat the alleged coercion as a trafficking-slavery risk and move to protective visas before the team’s exit.

Reality Check

When heads of government use public pressure to steer another country’s asylum decisions, we normalize power-by-post rather than due process. Even without direct U.S. legal force here, this kind of intervention conditions the public to accept executive personalization of humanitarian protection instead of insulated, rules-based adjudication. Over time, that degrades expectations that asylum and protection decisions are made by evidence, procedures, and accountable institutions rather than by political leverage.

Detail

Multiple sources told the ABC that five Iranian women’s national football players—Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Ghanbari, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramazanzadeh and Mona Hamoudi—left the team’s accommodation on the Gold Coast, evaded team handlers, and are being protected by police in Queensland while seeking asylum in Australia.

The players had refused to sing Iran’s national anthem before an opening match with South Korea at the Women’s Asian Cup earlier this month and were later labelled “traitors” on Iranian state television, prompting fears of persecution if they return to Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social urging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to grant asylum to the whole team, saying the U.S. would take them if Australia would not. NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner James Cockayne sent a referral to the Australian Federal Police, copied to the foreign affairs, attorney-general, and immigration ministers, urging an immediate investigation into potential modern slavery offences and initiation of visa processes that could include Human Trafficking Visas.