David has an Australian wife and child. The government wants him returned to Iran

Sydney Morning Herald

6 hours ago

David Shayegan hasn't heard from his sister since Iran's internet cut out last week. 'I can't tolerate it any more,' she texted, followed by two crying emojis. 'It's like world war.'
The last time they spoke, Israeli bombs were falling, the banks were closed and food was scarce. From his home in Noble Park, the 33-year-old arranged for an old friend to drop over supplies.
'It's chaos,' he said.
Shayegan is in Melbourne's south-east, far from the simmering war but still contemplating it as he faces returning to Iran, where he says his life would be under threat not only from bombs but from the Iranian government.
Since arriving in Australia by boat in 2012, his subsequent visa applications have been denied. The Australian government's latest advice is that he should return to Iran to lodge an offshore partner visa.
A convert to Christianity, he has married an Australian woman with whom he has an eight-year-old daughter. He is the primary carer for his chronically ill wife, has no criminal record and a character reference from a serving Victoria Police officer.
'How can they do this to me? I can't understand it,' he said, adding he feared his wife and daughter would have to move with him to Iran. 'My wife and my daughter would have to convert to Islam and wear hijabs. They could not cope.'
As the region remains on edge and the Australian government standing in support of American and Israeli strikes on Iran, Shayegan has applied for a last-ditch ministerial intervention request and is sharing his story to call for change.
'I don't really know why they are punishing us,' he said.'When Russia and Ukraine had war, straight away they sent a plane. There are just so many double standards.'
Shayegan has contacted his local federal member, Clare O'Neil, as well as other politicians to plead for help and seek updates about his case but cannot get answers.
'I'm sick of the Australian government ghosting me,' he said.
Shayegan's wife, Jodie Cook, wanted to share her family's struggles during the federal election to put immigration reform on the agenda.
'Liberal, Labor, they're all the same,' she said in April. 'Immigration is the number-one issue for us.'
However, the couple claims that the member for Bruce, Julian Hill, at the time dissuaded them from speaking publicly and promised to advocate on their behalf.
Hill was defending his nearby seat of Bruce, which is home to a large multicultural population, at the election where he promoted his role in helping people navigate the immigration system in his role as assistant minister for citizenship, customs and multicultural affairs.
After The Age contacted him with questions during the campaign, Hill called the family directly, as well as Shayegan's lawyers, promising he would advocate for a resolution of their case. Almost two months after Labor secured a second term, with Hill easily winning his seat and retaining his portfolio, the family are still in limbo.
'I can't stay silent any longer,' Shayegan said. 'Show the public what they are doing to us. It's gone on too long. I have nothing to lose.'
'Love at first sight'
Shayegan's childhood in west Iran was tough. His drug-dependent father was abusive and used violence and religion to control his family.
'My understanding of Islam was based on fear of hellfire rather than a deep understanding of the tenets of Islam,' he wrote in a statutory declaration.
In 2000, Shayegan was abducted, gang-raped and dumped on the roadside in Mashhad, north-east Iran. When he told his father, he was beaten and left with a broken arm.
His mother eventually filed for divorce after years of abuse. Shayegan wanted to support her, but work was hard to find so he left Iran at 19 years old, looking for a better life.
By that point, he abandoned Islam and was studying the Bible. 'I hated Islam and the Islamic regime of Iran,' he said. 'A friend introduced me to a people smuggler.'
He arrived at Christmas Island by boat in November 2012, and the smugglers told him not to provide identity documents to the Australian authorities. After six months in detention, he was released into the community with a bridging visa.
He couldn't speak English, and moved between share-houses, working odd jobs, when he was pulled over by police while driving in Adelaide without a licence. He was handcuffed, taken to the police station and his visa was cancelled.
He was then detained in Western Australia's Yongah Hill Detention Centre, a site which he said was used to house murderers and rapists awaiting deportation after their prison sentences are completed. He says beatings between detainees were common.
He read the Bible daily, and made a friend who introduced him to Jehovah's Witnesses. After almost a year in detention, he was released on another bridging visa and followed his friend to Melbourne to further embrace the religion.
It was here, in July 2016, that Shayegan met Jodie Cook. 'It was love at first sight,' he writes in the statutory declaration.
Cook's childhood was also tough. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 16 years old, and has had dozens of hospitalisations for manic episodes. The illness strained her family and made it difficult to hold jobs or relationships.
'I had always felt that because I suffer from mental illness I would never meet anyone who would love me, or would want to share a life with me. But then I met David.
'David helped me out of a dark time, he became my world and me his. I feel safe and secure when I'm near David. He is the love of my life,' she wrote.
The couple married in 2016 and had a child the following year. Cook suffered postpartum psychosis – the first time Shayegan saw the full force of her illness.
The new father ferried the baby from their home to the Monash Clayton Psychiatric Ward multiple times a day, so Cook could breastfeed and bond with the baby.
Cook's mother, Irene van Den Driesschen, praised Shayegan's response. 'David just grabbed hold of the situation,' she wrote in a statutory declaration supporting his ministerial intervention request. 'I know plenty of new dads who would have run a mile.'
Loading
After three months in hospital, they started to build a life together – renting a place in Noble Park and buying a golden retriever. Ever since, Shayegan has cared for Cook during her bouts of illness, and supported the family financially while he struggles to secure a visa.
He applied for a temporary protection visa in 2017, but this was denied after the department did not believe he was genuinely at risk if he returned to Iran.
'I remember sitting opposite the department officer, he was my age, and telling me that I was not at risk in Iran,' Shayegan told this masthead in April. 'I thought to myself, how could he know what Iran is like?'
He appealed the decision twice, only to be rejected again in 2022. Currently, Shayegan has no visa at all and relies on cash jobs as a painter. He desperately wants to be able to study, build a career, and buy a house for his small family.
'So many experiences I can't have with my daughter. I love to go out, do many things, but they put me in depression. My family suffers right now because of that,' he said.
To return to Iran, the embassy told Shayegan his security could not be guaranteed as he regularly criticises the government online.
'I'd need to sign a paper saying I'm sorry I left the country,' he said. 'They'll probably accuse me of working for Mossad. People are being killed.'
Loading
Cook, who refuses to separate from her husband, said in April the prospect of her relocating to Iran with their daughter while the visa is processed is terrifying. These fears have only grown since the war.
It is more than a year since the family requested ministerial intervention. Cook's doctors have supported Shayegan's application, as has her sister who is a police detective.
'When David came into Jodie's life, he was not only the love of my sister's life, but he was also a huge support to my mother and I. David never judged Jodie, instead he embraced her illness.
'He is always trying to strive for what's best for my sister and [their daughter]. He is a wonderful husband and father. David is a genuine, honest caring person who adds so much love and support to our family. He is our family,' she wrote.
Cook's sister says it is 'unjust' for Shayegan to have to return to Iran.
'In my line of work I often deal with people who suffer from mental illness, and it is horrific to see what happens to people who suffer without a support system in place,' she wrote.
'Please help keep my family together and give us peace and stability.'
Experts say there are thousands of people in the same situation as Shayegan.
'It's beyond time to find a resolution. There's no justification to continue treating people in this way,' says Professor Daniel Ghezelbash, a director with the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at the UNSW in Sydney.
'Iran has been very, very dangerous for a long time, it's only gotten more dangerous. From a moral standpoint, you're endorsing strikes, maybe you should be doing more to extend protection to people from that region.'
Marque Lawyers managing partner Michael Bradley, an experienced migration lawyer, said there remains 'systemic cruelty' throughout the immigration bureaucracy with 'little empathy and compassion'.
He predicted a spike in applications in the wake of escalating hostilities in the Middle East.
'If our government chooses to pile in and take a side in this war, then it bears some moral responsibility for the consequences of that. Obviously, these kinds of global disruptions are going to generate large refugee flows … The government is going to have to step up.'
The couple have written to many ministers and politicians for help, including former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus as well as Hill and O'Neil.
'He hasn't had any visa for many years and every system has failed us. David is a ghost here and we cannot progress in a life here like this it's not fair,' one email sent to Dreyfus in February last year states.
'I need my husband to get the respect and treatment in this country that we deserve. You can make the world of difference for my family we are counting on you.'
Cook received a pro forma response, saying nothing could be done. O'Neil, Hill, Dreyfus and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke all declined to comment.