‘Open the borders’ to Iranians: end Labor’s shameful Iranian visa ban
14 April 2026
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s announcement that Australia will impose a six-month ban on entry from Iran of visitor visa holders, affecting about 7000 people, is shameful.
It is a far cry from Bob Hawke’s granting asylum to thousands of Chinese in Australia when the Tiananmen Square massacre took place in 1989. It also stands in contrast to the welcome rightly given to thousands of Ukrainians fleeing war there.
The Labor government is deliberately denying the possibility of asylum to people who might desperately need it. It is a repeat of the Australian government’s refusal to process Iraqi refugee claims in 2003 because the US invasion was going to bring democracy.
Labor’s “control determination order” is callous in the extreme. And it continues Labor’s efforts to undermine human rights of asylum-seekers and the refugee convention.
Like Donald Trump deporting Iranians back to Iran late last year, the Australian government attempted to remove an Afghan asylum-seeker to Iran just before the US bombing started.
One Iranian mother of an Australian citizen was turned around at the Brisbane airport just before the bombing because Border Force deemed her an asylum risk.
There are about 82 Iranians in Australian detention. They should all be released. Hundreds of Iranian asylum-seekers are trapped in Indonesia by Australia’s 2014 ban on accepting refugees from there. They should all be brought to Australia, as should the Iranians still being held in PNG.
Iranians who were brought to Australia after being detained on Manus and Nauru in 2013 are still being denied permanent visas, as are many Iranian and other victims of the so-called “fast track” process designed to bar asylum-seekers.
Once again, Australia is denying asylum to the refugees being created by a war that the government is supporting.
RAC calls for the lifting of the visa ban and permanent protection for all Iranian asylum-seekers—and all asylum-seekers.