Sarah Basford Canales

6,600 Iranians with visitor visas prevented from travelling to Australia

More than 6,600 Iranians with visitor visas were prevented from travelling to Australia after the Albanese government announced a six-month travel ban amid the overseas conflict, home affairs officials say.

At a Senate estimates hearing last night, the department confirmed 6,634 Iranian nationals with valid visas were unable to travel after the decision by home affairs minister, Tony Burke, in March. Officials said the department had received 752 appeals for an exemption and had granted 480 travel exemptions and denied 164 others.

“Their visa is frozen, and if it has an expiry date that is after the September date when the arrival control determination lifts, then the visa will come into effect again,” Clare Sharp, the department’s immigration head, said.

Expressions of interest for a new temporary humanitarian pathway available for Iranian nationals onshore opened on Friday, granting them a three-year stay while the US-Israeli war against Iran continues. The department said there are 2,833 Iranian nationals in the country with visitor visas. So far, no one has applied.

Greens senator David Shoebridge asked whether the temporary visa could be made permanent in a similar way to those offered to Ukrainians and Palestinians in recent years.

Sharpe said: “As [those] conflicts progressed, and we’ve gotten a better handle on [whether] is this a short term crisis with people able to return, or is this a long-term protracted conflict? We will look at what options need to be put in place there.”

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