Iranian Australians have welcomed the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador to Australia even as some raised concerns that the move could leave family members stranded in Iran.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced the expulsion on Tuesday, saying the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (Asio) had “credible intelligence” to determine the Iranian government was behind the attacks against the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne and Lewis’s Continental Kitchen in Bondi in Sydney.
Mike Burgess, head of Asio, said the attacks had been ordered by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which would now be listed as a terrorist organisation, with new laws to be considered by federal parliament.
The diplomatic action, praised by Australia’s Jewish community, may also impact the ability of Iranians to visit Australia, a migration agent warned.
Albanese on Tuesday told reporters Australian embassy staff had been rushed out of the country. Operations have been suspended at Australia’s embassy in Tehran.
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Suren Edgar, vice president of the Australia Iranian Community Alliance (AICA), said the decision marked a long-overdue turning point in the relationship between Australia and the Islamic Republic.
“The prime minister’s remarks confirm what AICA, Iranian dissidents, intelligence agencies, security experts, journalists, and average Australians, indeed, every Dick, Tom, and Harry, have been warning about for years,” he said.
“Let us be clear: this is not a diplomatic disagreement with a sovereign nation. This is a countermeasure against a transnational criminal enterprise that has hijacked a country, plundered its resources, destabilised a region, and targeted innocent lives globally – including here in Australia.”
Community members told an Australian Senate inquiry in 2022 how IRGC officers had questioned and threatened their families in Iran, but the inquiry’s recommendation to designate the IRGC as a terror group was not adopted until Tuesday.
But Mohammad Reza Azimi, a Sydney-based migration agent, warned the ambassador’s expulsion risked thousands of Australians being cut off from their families.
“All these people, very happy today, they’re going to ... raise up these problems: my father cannot come, I can’t bring my partner [to Australia],” Azimi said.
“They have parents, they have brothers, they have sisters back in Iran. If there is no embassy, how are they going to get their passport sorted?” he said.
More than 90,000 Australian residents were born in Iran, one in seven of whom arrived within the last five years through the skills-focused permanent migration program.
Many hopeful migrants could be prevented from entering Australia due to the IRGC’s designation as a terrorist organisation, Azimi warned.
Iranian men are required to serve in the Iranian army or the IRGC. The latter’s designation as a terrorist organisation by the US has left IRGC conscripts ineligible for US immigrant visas.
Azimi, who served a compulsory term in the IRGC three decades ago and moved to Australia 10 years later, said genuine skilled migrants who were conscripted may be deemed ineligible to enter Australia.
“They might not be able to pass the character test for the visa, which I hope the government is not considering,” Azimi said. “It’s going to jeopardise the applications from many Iranians.”
The Department of Home Affairs referred questions over Iranian embassy access to the Iranian government and declined to directly clarify how visa applications would be impacted.
Penny Wong, the foreign affairs minister, on Tuesday urged the many Australians with family connections to Iran not to travel to Iran, if they had plans to do so. Wong also urged Australians to leave Iran.
Australians in Iran face “high risk of arbitrary detention or arrest” and cannot be guaranteed consular support or legal representation, according to the Smartraveller website.
Rana Dadpour, an anti-Islamic Republic advocate in Australia, said many in the local community had long been concerned for their family members in Iran.
“We have already seen many of us, our parents, our brothers and sisters have been harassed or intimidated ... so this is something we are very familiar with,” she said.
“We never expected it to happen … there was a hopeless, helpless feeling in the community and suddenly it disappeared,” Dadpour said.
“I’ve just received so many calls and messages from my friends and people in the community here in Australia, everyone’s screaming, their hard work has paid off and they have been listened to.”
But others feared their relatives in Iran might be put at risk by having connections to Australia.
Sam, 34, an Australian business owner from Western Australia whose name has been changed to protect his family’s identity, said he was concerned about his mother and six siblings who live in Iran after fleeing Afghanistan.
“I’m so worried now. The [IRGC] can easily target people who have Australian connections. They know where our family lives, they know when we visit them,” he said.
Sam was in Iran when Israel began its bombardment in June and at the time was forced to give his family’s details, including their addresses, to local police, he said. He has applied for Australian humanitarian visas for his relatives.
“They’re living in a very scary situation,” he said.
