Australian police had to extract five of the Iranian women’s football team members from their hotel rooms before they could be offered options for asylum.
After days of increasing concern for the athlete's safety, Australian authorities made the breakthrough on Monday night.
At the Gold Coast hotel, the women had managed to go to their rooms alone, away from the constant security around them.
From there, authorities took them into a private room so that they could speak to migration agent Nahmeh Dani, who informed them of their options, Australia’s ABC news reported.
"They were under a lot of stress. They didn't know what to do, they were worried about their family, their assets in Iran, what was the best decision to make now: 'What if we stay here and we lose all our assets in Iran?'" Dani said.
"They wanted to stay, but they were worried about the consequences because, you know, how the government of Iran … can confiscate everything," she added.
Danai also said the regime had tried to "brainwash" the players into going back. "So we were trying to remove all the false information that they have been given by these [Iranian] government officials", she said.
The five members who were granted asylum and humanitarian visas are, Zahra Ghanbari, the team captain, Zahra Sarbali Alishah, Mona Hamoudi and Atefeh Ramezanizadeh - all in their early 30s. 21-year-old Fatemeh Pasandideh was also granted asylum.
Australia’s humanitarian visa grants permission to refugees to live, work and study in the country.
Australian Federal Police helped the women move to a safe location on Monday evening, where they remain under their protection, Burke said.
Australia had deployed its own officers to protect the women, even before their defection, Reuters reported. They also contacted one of the player's family members to inform them of the developments.
The rest of the team members are expected to fly to Sydney later this evening.
US President Donald Trump had posted earlier saying thatthe rest of the women “are on their way” to get help.
The players’ families were reportedly threatened after the team refused to sing the Iranian national anthem at the opening game of the Asian Women’s Cup. An Iranian news agency had also labelled them “wartime traitor” for their act of protest.
The women had to change their stance and sang and even saluted the national anthem in subsequent games.
