The NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner has criticised the Federal Police and Sydney Airport for not doing more to stop the Iranian women’s football team from leaving the country after several players sought asylum.
Commission head Dr James Cockayne lashed out over what he claims was the AFP and airport’s failure to take full advantage of Australia’s mechanisms to crack down on human trafficking.
Players and team members who are returning to Iran could face reprisals after the stars refused to sing the national anthem before their Asian Cup match on March 2.
‘All available signs suggest that members of the Iranian women’s football team, and their support crew, were and are being coerced to return to Iran. If so, that would constitute exit trafficking under Australian criminal law – a crime punishable by up to 12 years’ imprisonment,’ Dr Cockayne wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald.
The commissioner added that he wrote to Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett on Monday – before five members of the team escaped from their hotel and received humanitarian visas – and called for ‘an urgent criminal investigation’.
In a separate statement on Thursday, the commissioner said the scenes at Sydney Airport on Tuesday night, when team members who hadn’t sought asylum left the country on their way back to possible severe reprisals in Iran, left him distressed.
NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner Dr James Cockayne (pictured) wants answers about what the Australian Federal Police, Qantas and Sydney Airport did to allow
Six Iranian soccer players and a team support staffer pose with two Australian officials after getting asylum in Australia. Dr Cockayne believes there are strong signs their teammates were ‘exit trafficked’ out of the country
Pictured: The Iranian team being transferred to the international terminal by bus after flying to Sydney from the Gold Coast on Tuesday
‘They also left me feeling dismayed – and not a little confused about the role that the Australian Federal Police, Sydney Airport and Qantas all seem to have played in making this exit happen, despite the widespread concern about threats, intimidation, and coercion.’
Dr Cockayne referred to reports that ‘the so-called ‘minders’ accompanying the team are security officials from Iran’
He also said it’s important to establish whether the AFP investigated any trafficking allegations, if the players received independent legal advice about staying in Australia, and what steps the airport took to ‘address this clear and highly publicised risk of exit trafficking’.
‘Like many Australians, I look forward to these urgent issues being answered,’ he said.
‘I certainly do not want to believe that our national police force, or the businesses that run our national flag carrier and our busiest airport, may have turned a blind eye or even unwittingly contributed to exit trafficking.
‘If the AFP did not investigate – why not, given the grounds for suspecting the presence of the elements of the offence of exit trafficking in the Commonwealth Criminal Code?
‘And why were the perpetrators of this suspected exit trafficking allowed to leave Australia – facilitated by police escorts to and at the airport?
‘Sydney Airport has recently been running an advertising campaign encouraging members of the public to report suspicions of human trafficking occurring in the airport.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke is pictured with the five Iranian players who were first to claim asylum in Australia
The Iranian players are pictured after landing in Kuala Lumpur on their way back to an uncertain future in their home country
‘What did it do in this case to address this clear and highly publicised risk of exit trafficking, through its facilities?’
Qantas was not involved in flying the team out of the country.
The footballers and support staff took a Qantas flight from the Gold Coast to Sydney on Tuesday, and were taken by bus straight from the plane to the international terminal.
They then flew to Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian Airlines.
One of the Iranian soccer squad members granted asylum in Australia changed her mind about seeking refuge, prompting the remaining six who accepted humanitarian visas to be moved to another location.
The player had been granted a humanitarian visa overnight along with a support worker, bringing the number of Iranians sseeking refuge in Australia to seven.
But she changed her mind on Wednesday morning and contacted the Iranian embassy, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.
‘In Australia, people are able to change their mind, people are able to travel,’ he told parliament.
‘We respect the context in which she has made that decision.’
The remaining women who stayed in Australia had to be moved to a safer location, he said, because the player gave away their location when contacting the embassy.
‘Unfortunately, in making that decision, she had been advised by her teammates and coach to contact the Iranian embassy and get collected,’ he said.
Mr Burke earlier said government officials did not rush or pressure the women into making a decision on whether to accept a humanitarian visa following the team’s exit from the Asian Cup.
‘The one pressure we couldn’t take away was the context … what pressures they might have felt with their own family members,’ Mr Burke told reporters in Canberra.
