Australian Border Force officials are telling refugees on Nauru they must separate from their wives and children – and face never seeing them again – in order to apply for resettlement in the US.

Recordings of phone conversations and an email chain confirm the ABF is encouraging permanent family separation, in contravention of international law, and directly contradicting evidence given to the the Senate by the department secretary, Mike Pezzullo.

In September, the Guardian reported on the case of Arash Shirmohamadi, who has never seen his Australia-born baby girl, Yusra, now nearly nine months old, and whom he has been told he must abandon in order to apply for resettlement.

Australian-born Yusra, the daughter of Iranian refugee Arash Shirmohamadi.

A formally recognised refugee who fled persecution in Iran, Shirmohamadi has been held on Nauru, while his wife and child are in held detention in Sydney.

He has been told by the ABF that he has two choices: either separate from his wife and relinquish all rights to his child in order to apply for resettlement in the US as a single man; or bring his family, including his Australian-born child, to Nauru to apply for a chance – but with no guarantee – of American resettlement together.

The US has rejected almost all resettlement applications from Iranian nationals - accepting only a handful while refusing hundreds - and Shirmohamadi’s wife has been advised by doctors not to return to Nauru because of ongoing complex health issues.

Shirmohamadi says he faces an impossible choice and the government’s policy might keep him from ever seeing his daughter.

“I was not allowed to be with my wife for our child’s birth and now they are saying to me, ‘You must abandon your family’,” he told the Guardian from Nauru. “And they do it just to be cruel, just to cause pain to me and my family. To be heartless.

“My wife cannot come back because of a lack of medical support. And my innocent baby, there is no future for her in this hell.”

Several department sources, and sources on Nauru, have confirmed to the Guardian that it is “unofficial policy” to use family separation as a coercive measure to encourage refugees to agree to return to Nauru, or even to abandon their protection claims altogether. The department has said in public statements that families are separated to keep the number of people being brought to Australia as low as possible.

The relinquishment of child custody being promoted by the ABF is permanent.

On 31 March – four days after the birth of his daughter – an ABF status resolution officer emailed Shirmohamadi with an attached release of custody agreement document, to be signed by a biological parent.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An email sent to Arash Shirmohamadi four days after the birth of his daughter with an attached form to relinquish his parental rights. Photograph: Arash Shirmohamadi

The document, if completed, would have meant Shirmohamadi had given up all parental rights over his daughter, including, potentially, the right to ever see her.

The form says: “I hereby agree to relinquish custody of my minor child.

“I understand that by signing this agreement the non-custodial parent will not automatically be able to seek reunification with my child and that this may mean permanent separation.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Release of custody agreement document, to be signed by a biological parent agreeing to give up all parental rights to their child, including access. Photograph: Arash Shirmohamadi

Shirmohamadi refused to sign the document.

In a subsequent recorded phone call obtained by the Guardian, a different ABF status resolution officer advocates for Shirmohamadi to accept the separation of his family in order to be resettled.

“If you want to keep your case together, your wife would need to be on Nauru,” the ABF official tells Arash in the recording. “I can’t comment on the custody side of things, but if you wanted to progress in the US process without your family, it would be a matter of splitting your cases.”

In Senate estimates the Greens senator Nick McKim asked about the Australian government’s policy of of advocating permanent family separation. Pezzullo said: “I don’t believe that’s occurred at all … I can’t imagine that that’s occurred at all.”

The deputy commissioner of the Australian Border Force, Mandy Newton, responded to the same question: “I’m not aware of that circumstance happening and we wouldn’t advise people of that position.”

The department refused to answer questions from the Guardian on its officials’ responses. Instead, it referred questions to the minister’s office, which also refused to answer.

The Guardian approached Pezzullo and Newton through the immigration department and immigration minister’s office to ask what they knew about the correspondence concerning family separation before giving their evidence. The department and the minister’s office declined to answer.

Simon Bruck, a lawyer from the Refugee Advice and Casework Service and who represents Shirmohamadi, said the 32-year-old refugee had been asked to make an impossible choice: “agree to resettle in the USA without his wife and baby daughter and with no guarantee they will ever see each other again, or risk losing his chance to be resettled in the USA”.



“Arash’s medical notes describe him as being highly stressed and anxious in being physically separated from his wife when she was about to give birth. Baby Yusra is now 9 months old and Arash still hasn’t seen her in person. The Refugee Advice and Casework Service considers that family unity should be respected. Australia should bring this family together and protect this family in a safe environment.”

In the senate on Tuesday night, McKim said Shirmohamadi’s situation could be resolved by the immigration minister with the “stroke of a pen”.

“I beseech him to review this case and the decisions that the immigration department has made in relation to Arash and his family. Minister Dutton needs ... to either allow Arash’s family to apply for the US deal — without Arash’s wife and daughter leaving Australia and going back to Nauru — or allow Arash to come back to Australia to be in the arms of his family and to hold his baby daughter for the first time.

“To do anything other than one of those two options would constitute wanton cruelty and an abject abandonment of humanity and compassion.”

Family unity is a fundamental principle of international and Australian domestic law. Australia is a party to the convention on the rights of the child, which states that children have a right to know and be cared for by their parents, and should grow up in a family environment wherever possible. It is also a party to the international covenant on civil and political rights, which says the family “is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state”.