Australia is trying to persuade Iran to take back hundreds people who have been denied refugee status as part of a visit to Tehran

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Australia’s prime minister, Tony Abbott, has said that Iran should take back its citizens who failed in their bids for refugee status, confirming his government will lobby Tehran on the issue.

The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, is expected to raise the deportation of Iranian nationals when she visits Tehran next week, a move which could ease pressure on Australian immigration detention centres on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

“It’s important that those who are found not to be refugees go home,” Abbott told reporters in Sydney. “And this is where we will be talking to the Iranian government about taking back people who are ... Iranian citizens, because they deserve to be in Iran. They belong in Iran.”

Refugee advocates say Iran refuses to take back failed asylum seekers returned against their will, and have raised questions about their safety if they are returned to their homeland.

“Obviously we are looking after those who are found to be refugees,” Abbott said when asked about the possible persecution of Iranians sent home.

“But those who are not found to be refugees should go back to their home country, and if their home country is Iran, that’s where they belong.”

Iranians make up about 20% of the 1,848 people held in immigration detention centres in Australia, according to official figures from late March, and account for many of the 1,707 held on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, where Iranian Reza Barati was killed in February 2014.

Several thousand more are understood to be living in the community on bridging visas but still awaiting the final assessment of their claims for refugee status.

Bishop will travel to Tehran next week aiming to build closer ties with Iran in a bid to help with the fight against Islamic State extremists, against the backdrop of the recent international agreement to lift sanctions in exchange for Iran abandoning its nuclear program.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, backed the principle of repatriating those found not be refugees.



“We will wait and see what Julie Bishop produces in her talks with Iran. We want to see the detail,” he told reporters in Melbourne.



Shorten said any arrangement needed to be consistent with international obligations, with asylum seekers afforded due process and their claims properly assessed.



“But in the event they are found not to be refugees, then they should be supported to go home as soon as possible.”



The Australian Greens’ immigration spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, said this would place the lives of men, women and children at high risk.



“What kind of guarantees will the Australian government get to ensure that people sent back to Iran are looked after and kept safe?” she said to reporters in Adelaide.



“I fear there’s really no guarantees that could be made, and even so you have got to question whether the Australian government cares that much about them.”

One Iranian asylum seeker went on a hunger strike in Perth for 44 days after attempts to appeal against the government’s rejection of his refugee status were also rejected.

Victoria Martin from the Refugee Rights Action Network of WA told Guardian Australia the man had received a number of offers of legal assistance, and would continue to fight to be able to stay in Australia.

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has said his department is still offering to repatriate the man back to Iran, where his supporters say he will face persecution.

But because Iran will not accept forced repatriations, he could remain in detention indefinitely.

Since December more than 15 Iranian men at Darwin’s Wickham Point immigration detention facility have embarked on hunger strikes.

One man, known as Martin, began his strike in November, stopping shortly before Christmas under urging from advocates, before restarting again until February when a court appeal of his case was heard. He remains in extremely poor health as a result, and is classified “high risk” in the centre.

With AFP and AAP