Hedieh Jamshidian feared the window to see her mother, living in Tehran under waves of airstrikes, was closing.
The Australian government had just announced it could block some visa holders from entering the country. So, Jamshidian, a 32-year-old Iranian Australian, decided to act quickly. Within a week she bought her mother, who held a three-month tourist visa, a ticket to Sydney.
“I thought maybe if I wait it out there is no way for us to ever meet again,” she says.
Jamshidian’s 76-year-old mother arrived in Australia, via Turkey, days before the federal government’s six-month ban on Iranians with tourist visas entering the country came into effect last week.
But her older sister and brother-in-law, who were also planning to visit Sydney from Tehran last month, had their tourist visas suspended under the new laws.
“She and her family are under bombs every minute in Tehran. I’m worried sick for them and I feel like I can in no way support them,” she says.
“I have no way to help. I can’t travel back to Iran and they can’t come here, even for a very short time.”
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailThey are among about 6,800 Iranians outside Australia with valid tourist visas affected by the ban, although some may still be given the chance to enter the country under special consideration. The laws, which have enraged refugee and humanitarian advocates, are in response to the government’s concerns that people travelling to Australia on temporary visas could seek to stay permanently because of the war in the Middle East.
Jamshidian, who has lived in Australia for eight years, says the government’s decision makes the country feel like a “home that doesn’t support you”.
“The Australian government was so quick to support this illegal war and shockingly quick to ban Iranian people who might have wanted to shelter from this war temporarily somewhere safer,” she says.
“I don’t feel this is aligned with the ‘Australian values’ I committed to when I was granted Australian citizenship, such as ‘equality of all people’ and ‘equality of opportunity and a fair go’.”
Iranian Australians question: ‘Why us?’
Mahdi, an Iranian Australian in Melbourne, remembers his brother, Hussain, in Tehran telling him not to bother trying to get him a tourist visa to Australia as Israel and US first dropped bombs on the capital.
The 43-year-old, who has been a citizen since 2014, had previously brought his parents and elder brother to Australia for a short stay years ago.
But his recent attempt to invite Hussain and his wife from Iran for a brief stay shortly before the war broke out was rejected.
Hussain, Mahdi explains, lives in an area close to the capital’s government buildings where Israeli and US missiles have struck.
Mahdi hasn’t heard from his brother in more than two weeks.
“I’m really concerned about his and his wife’s safety now,” he says.
“I just want to bring them here to [give them] some relief, and to see my family here as well, because I cannot travel because of the conflict.”
The Albanese government’s decision to impose the temporary ban has left many in the Iranian Australian community frustrated and confused.
During previous conflicts or invasions, such as those in Ukraine and Gaza, civilians with connections to Australia were encouraged to apply for tourist visas in order to make a quick escape from violence and begin the process of gaining a temporary humanitarian visa.
“Everyone is in shock, and they say they don’t know what’s the politics behind it. Why [do] they make that mistake to ban Iranians?” Mahdi says.
The government has previously offered Ukrainians and Palestinians humanitarian visa pathways for those already in the country with tourist visas.
The Refugee Council reported last month that nearly 15,000 temporary visas have been granted to Ukrainians since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, with more than 34,000 people arriving in that time.
More than 1,000 three-year humanitarian visas have been granted to Palestinians arriving in Australia since October 2023.
Department officials revealed in March that the total number of temporary visa holders in the Middle East affected by the US-Israel war on Iran exceeded 40,000. So far, a ban has only been applied to Iranian nationals.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, told parliament his decision was made because the number of tourist visas issued to Iranians before the conflict was “as large as this”.
“The government has a very clear view that decisions about permanent stays in Australia should be a deliberate decision of the government, not a random consequence of who was planning to book a holiday here,” he said.
