I made them the same offer that I had made the five players the night before, and that was that if they wanted to receive a humanitarian visa for Australia, which would have a pathway to a permanent visa. I had the paperwork ready to execute that immediately. They both said that they did. I signed off on that.
Australians have been moved by the plight of these brave women. They're safe here, and they should feel at home here. According to Albanese, all other members of Iran's squad are welcome to receive help, but it was up to them to accept the offer.
After France issued the couple humanitarian visas to avoid them being deported to Russia, Alexei Ishimov, 31, arrived in Paris from Seattle on Monday morning, AFP correspondents saw. His 29-year-old wife Nadezhda, a former volunteer for the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was expected to arrive on a separate flight from Miami, also on Monday morning. But she did not show up at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport as planned.
