Another 3 members of Iran’s women’s soccer team decide against staying in Australia as refugees

Another three members of Iran’s women’s soccer team who accepted refugee visas to stay in Australia have decided to return to their homeland, an Australian government minister said on Sunday.

The departure leaves three of an initial seven squad members in Australia.

“Overnight, three members of the Iranian Women’s Football Team made the decision to join the rest of the team on their journey back to Iran,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said in a statement.

“After telling Australian officials they had made this decision, the players were given repeated chances to talk about their options,” Burke added.

Iran’s team arrived in Australia for the Women’s Asian Cup last month, before Israel and the United States launched surprise airstrikes on their country on Feb. 28.

Initially, six players and a support staff member from an official squad list of 26 players accepted humanitarian visas to stay in Australia before the rest of the Iranian contingent flew from Sydney to Malaysia on March 9.

Another later changed her mind and left Australia. Three left Sydney for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Saturday night, a government official said. The rest of the team has remained in Kuala Lumpur since they left Australia.

Iran’s Tasnim News Agency said the latest three to leave Australia were two players and the support staff member. The three were “returning to the warm embrace of their family and homeland,” the news outlet said in a statement.

The Iranian news agency described the women’s return to the team as the “disgraceful failure of the American-Australian project and another failure for Trump.”

The Australian government was urged to help the woman by some Iranian groups in Australia and by U.S. President Donald Trump.

But earlier this week, Iran’s head coach Marziyeh Jafari said the players “want to come back to Iran as soon as we can,” according to Australia’s national news agency, AAP.

The players mostly declined to comment on the war back home during the tournament, although Iran forward Sara Didar choked back tears in a news conference as she shared their concerns for their families, friends and all Iranians during the conflict.

Concerns about the team’s safety in Iran heightened when the players didn’t sing the Iranian national anthem before their first match against South Korea. The move was interpreted by some as an act of resistance and others as a show of mourning, but the team didn’t clarify.

The team later sang and saluted the national anthem before their remaining two matches.

The Iran war has killed more than 2,000 people, mostly in Iran, and created the biggest oil supply disruption in history — pushing prices sharply higher as maritime traffic has halted in a region that delivers a fifth of the world’s oil.