Australia Bans Entry to Iranian Visa Holders Who Are Fleeing the Illegal War 

The US and Israel began their war of aggression on Iran on 28 February 2026, based on the pretext of saving the Iranian people from the tyranny of their government. Australia was the first nation to extol the virtues of this mission, yet then it promptly passed laws allowing it to impose a ban on 7,000-odd Iranians with valid visas from entering this country, as they’ll now be fleeing a war zone it supports.

Home affairs minister Tony Burke announced the move on Wednesday, 25 March. The ban involves Iranians now overseas holding a valid subclass 600 visitor visa having been blocked from entering Australia for the next 6 months. The minister considers that Iranians arriving whilst this nation’s allies are attempting to destroy their nation “may be unable or unlikely to depart Australia” on visa expiry.

Home affairs was able to impose an “arrival control determination” upon Iranian temporary visas holders because the government passed the framework providing this, with bipartisan approval, ten days after the war broke out. Contained in the Migration Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Bill 2026, the laws permit for such determinations to be made against “specified classes of noncitizens”.

The migration amendment passed the Senate on the day that the government also granted Iranian women soccer players humanitarian visas, on the basis of nonrefoulement, or the prohibition against returning foreign nationals to the real risk of persecution. But the new Australian law undermines this basic principle and hence, the entire 1951 Refugee Convention, of which we are a signatory.

This new mechanism to prohibit certain foreign nationals from entering this country, which specifically is a block on our nonrefoulement obligations, is in keeping with the antiimmigrant campaign being progressed by the US Trump administration, but it is also further in keeping with Australia’s decadeslong campaign of demonising and punishing refugees and asylum seekers.

The buildup to war

“The Iran conflict has increased the risk some visa holders may be unable – or unlikely – to leave Australia when their visas expire,” Home Affairs has explained online. “The temporary travel restrictions that apply as a result of the determination help protect the integrity and sustainability of Australia’s migration system and allow the government time to assess risks before travel happens.”

And those 7,000-odd Iranians with a subclass 600 visa, most of whom appear to have applied for theirs prior to Australia’s allies illegally attacking their nation during diplomatic negotiations, will not only be restricted from arriving here, and instead, be made to remain in the new war zone, but most will neither be getting a refund for the fee they paid in acquiring their temporary visit visas.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese was the first global leader to throw his nation’s support behind Washington and Tel Aviv’s illegal act of aggression against Tehran, and he framed it as Australia standing “with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against oppression”. Yet our top minister would prefer that those “brave people” continue to remain in the line of fire.

The hardening of the Australian position against Iran came quite unexpectedly on 26 August last year, when the PM and ASIO boss Mike Burgess appeared before the press to explain that two of thirteen serious so-called antisemitic crimes that had taken place in Greater Sydney and Naarm-Melbourne over the summer of 2024/25, had been carried out by Iran’s Islamic Republican Guard Corps.

The Iranian ambassador was then expelled. This was particularly controversial as the New South Wales police and the Australian federal police had explained to the public that their investigations had found that all these crimes had been staged by local organised crime to convey a crisis. And the Israeli press then suggested that Mossad provided ASIO with the intel regarding Iranian interference.

The guts of the bill

“Australians rightly expect that government can effectively regulate travel into Australia to prevent unsustainable strains on the functioning of that system,” said assistant minister for regional development Anthony Chislom, as he delivered the 11 March 2026 second reading speech on the migration amendment.

“The current situation in the Middle East demonstrates how quickly circumstances can change that may impact temporary migration to Australia,” the Labor senator added. “In these circumstances, it is vital that government can respond appropriately, including by placing temporary limitations on the ability of certain cohorts of noncitizens from travelling to Australia.”

The bill, which flew through both houses of parliament over two days, has inserted new subdivision AGA into division 3 of part 2 of the broad patchwork of laws that is the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) (the Act). New section 84A of the Act explains that the subdivision serves to allow for blanket bans “on the arrival of certain classes of temporary visa holders” to maintain Australia’s immigration system.

New section 84B of the Act provides that the minister may make an arrival control determination in respect of one or more groups of noncitizens. To do this, the minister must be satisfied an event has or is happening outside of Australia that might cause noncitizens to overstay their visas, or if the visa would not have been issued if the event was already underway at time of application.

The imposing of an arrival control determination must also be in the public interest. The minister must receive agreement from the PM and foreign minister on the issuing of a determination. The order must specify the period in which it is active, and this must not exceed a 6 month period, while there is nothing stopping the minister from issuing the same determination subsequent times.

Section 84C outlines that an arrival control determination does not apply to certain types of noncitizens, such as individuals holding protection or safe haven visas, those on permanent visas, or the spouse, partner or a dependent child of an Australian citizen, permanent visa holders, a usual resident or the subject of a travel certificate.

And section 84F of the Act provides that the minister must make a determination via a legislative instrument, which must be introduced into both houses of parliament no later than two days after it was made. This must be further accompanied by the minister’s reasonings for issuing of the order. And a legislative instrument must be progressed in order to revoke a determination as well.

The callous chasing each other’s tails

The impetus for the warring on Iran was Israel, with its PM Benjamin Netanyahu having pushed for such a war with US support for decades. Albanese’s decision to expel the Iranian ambassador last August, on the basis of intel likely supplied by Israel, and after the 2025 Twelve Day war between Israel and Iran ended, had served to secure our support in the not unexpected second conflict.

The newly legislated and imposed “Iranian ban” smacks of US Trump administration influence. The White House progressed its own ban on Iranians and other foreign nationals early in its current term. And a key divisive feature that the first US Trump administration imposed as it initially came to power was a somewhat similar “Muslim ban” on foreign nationals, which set the tone for what followed.

The Trump administration has unleashed a deportation drive against undocumented migrants in the United States. This involves masked ICE agents, immigration officers, disappearing migrants off the streets and placing them in detention centres, with some slated for deportation. And this system appears to have the potential to develop into something like the Nazi Holocaust of World War II.

Australia has been disappearing noncitizens into onshore and offshore detention centres since the turn of the century. This demonisation of noncitizens continues, but it is not yet at the heightened levels as the US is witnessing since Trump’s second coming. And it should be remembered that this nation’s barbarity towards refugees has long been the envy of authoritarian western leaders.

In this country, asylum seekers arriving by boat face detention, while those arriving by plane do not and can instead access pathways to residency. In 2017, when then US president Trump asked then Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull, why the bias against boats, he didn’t wait for an explanation, but rather remarked as it dawned upon him, “I know, they come from certain regions. I get it”.

On the day that the blanket ban on foreigners fleeing persecution mechanism passed, specifically with an eye to restricting Iranians fleeing our allies’ war, Burke granted five Iranian women soccer players asylum, as they were touring here. This jumped to seven, but five of them then changed their minds and returned to Tehran, leaving Australians wondering if it had all been wartime propaganda.

And the hardening of our nation’s stance against Iran should too be perceived as ongoing attempts to appease the Trump White House as it demands its allies mimic its hardline posturing against Global South nations, and as our government capitulates, constituents should note that we’re not yet at the stage that the US is at, which involves government getting all authoritarian against its own people.