Australia will temporarily stop Iranians from entering the country on tourist visas, the country’s Home Affairs minister announced Wednesday, saying temporary visitors from Iran may be “unable or unlikely to depart Australia when their visas expire.”

The block will come into force Thursday and run for six months.

Some Iranians will still be able to travel to Australia, including those on longer-term visas or those with children or spouses in the country.

“The government is acting in the national interest amid rapidly changing global conditions,” Burke said.

Some 7,000 Iranians hold visitor visas to come to Australia, according to Burke.

Earlier this month Australia granted political asylum to seven members of the Iranian women’s soccer team, only for five to change their minds and renounce their claim to refugee status.

Senator David Shoebridge, immigration spokesperson for The Australian Greens, labeled Wednesday’s move “a brutal and unfair decision designed to ensure none of them (Iranians) can make an onshore claim for protection like members of the Iranian women’s football team.”

“The vast majority of people seeking asylum from authoritarian countries do so by securing a visa and then applying for asylum upon arrival,” Shoebridge said.

“There are vanishingly small numbers of offshore humanitarian visas provided to people in Iran, because doing so would clearly identify them as a target from the Iranian government.”

Source: CNN