Iranian man could be deported to Australia as part of Trump’s ICE raids despite Albanese being ‘left in dark’
Asked about any agreement with the US to accept deportees, the spokesperson said: “There have been no new agreements made with the Trump administration on immigration.”
An old agreement struck in 2016 between former leaders Malcolm Turnbull and Barack Obama, and reluctantly honoured by the first Trump administration, committed Australia to accept refugees from Costa Rica in return for the US resettling asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru. There is no indication the threat to deport Zavvar is connected to that deal.
Firouzeh Firouzabadi said her son was taken into custody while walking his dog. Credit: Image via Nine News
Zavvar is challenging the deportation order. Court documents seen by this masthead show US district judge Theodore Chuang has blocked the administration from deporting Zavvar while the case is underway.
Benach said she was not surprised the Australian government knew nothing about the threats to her client.
“I didn’t buy for a second that they [ICE] did anything more than fill in ‘Australia’ in a blank spot on a form and hand it to my client,” she said. “I would be very surprised if the Australians agreed to be a place for deportees that have no ties there.”
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Zavvar’s sister Maryam told Nine News Australia she did not know what would happen to her beloved brother.
“It’s absolutely frustrating, it’s heartbreaking for all of us,” she told the network. “He is not a criminal, he is the nicest guy you can possibly imagine. Our society, our community, is not benefiting from what’s happening to our family and to Reza.”
The US State Department declined to comment, and ICE and the DHS did not respond to requests for comment. However, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told The Washington Post Zavvar was “a criminal illegal alien from Iran”, and that in Trump’s America “if you break the law, you will face the consequences”.
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Since returning to power, Trump has deported small numbers of people to the African nations of South Sudan and Eswatini, and Rwanda has just agreed to take up to 250 deportees, according to a Reuters report on Tuesday.
The administration has reportedly been seeking additional resettlement deals with other African countries.
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