Australia | Family of Iranian woman who fled death penalty should have asylum case review, court rules

The woman managed to secure a safe haven visa but not her parents and brother, who escaped with her to Australia

The family of a woman who fled Iran after facing the death penalty for escaping an arranged marriage has been granted the chance to stay with her in Australia.

Despite an Immigration Assessment Authority decision to deport the woman’s parents and brother, the federal circuit court has ruled the trio should have their application for asylum reviewed.

The Immigration Assessment Authority, established by Tony Abbott’s Coalition government nearly a decade ago, is tasked with reviewing fast-track decisions to refuse protection visas by the federal immigration minister.

The woman entered into an arranged marriage aged 17 but was abused by her husband and rekindled a relationship with a former boyfriend.

Her husband, whose family is connected to Iran’s powerful and shadowy Revolutionary Guard, reported the pair to the police and the woman was charged with adultery, an offence punishable by death.

Family members negotiated her release on condition she returned to her husband, who then threatened to kill her for dishonouring him.

Upon release, she escaped with her parents and brother to Australia.

The woman managed to secure a safe haven visa but not her family, with minister David Coleman deciding he wasn’t satisfied they were at any risk of harm should they return to Iran.

However, federal circuit court judge Tony Young found the applicants were “deprived of the chance of a successful outcome”.

Specifically, he said the delegate representing the minister had failed to include the woman’s marriage certificate in the materials provided to the Immigration Assessment Authority. The authority had rejected her family’s claim that they would also be at risk if deported because her husband was well-connected to the Iranian regime.

“It is, in my view, impossible to accept that [her] marriage certificate, for example, ought not to have been seen as relevant to the review [by the Immigration Assessment Authority]. As the Authority’s reasons show, the failure to provide evidence of the marriage, the marriage certificate, was a key factor in the Authority not accepting any of the central allegations of the applicants.”

Source: AAP, Staff, July 22, 2023

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