Milad Jafari's wife, Mojgan Shamsalipoor, was forcibly transferred to a Darwin detention centre without a chance to say goodbye to her husband.
Milad Jafari's wife, Mojgan Shamsalipoor, was forcibly transferred to a Darwin detention centre without a chance to say goodbye to her husband. Photo: Supplied
A Brisbane man says he has been left "heartbroken and hopeless" after his wife was forcibly detained by immigration officials and refused permission to say good-bye to her husband before being sent to a Darwin detention centre.
Australian resident Milad Jafari, 21, said his wife, Mojgan Shamsalipoor, also 21, was taken from the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation centre, where she had spent the past eight months and taken to Darwin on Friday.
The following day, more than 100 people gathered in Brisbane city to protest the move and the Border Force Act.
Mr Jafari said his "heart is broken" by the decision.  The couple married in October 2014 and Ms Shamsalipoor was placed in detention in Brisbane after two years in the community, two months later, after her asylum claim was rejected.
Mr Jafari said his wife was determined to continue her schooling, to achieve her dream of being a midwife, and spent her time in detention finishing Year 11 and Year 12. 
She was three months away from graduating from Yeronga High School when she was taken, with Mr Jafari saying she was "dragged on the ground" by officers after she resisted immigration officers and asked to call her husband.
"I have been here for four years, I have been trying to develop as much as I can, you know, I have been trying to be an engineer, she was trying to be a mid-wife, she was always dreaming about this," Mr Jafari said.
"...That is not Australia that is not the country I believe in, it is not the people of Australia – Australian people care about us, they care."
The Immigration Department told the ABC that the move was for operational reasons and it was attempting to resolve cases of failed asylum seekers living in the community, with the expectation they would leave voluntarily, with the option to detain them if they did not co-operate.
But Mr Jafari said his wife had fled an extremely unsafe situation in Iran, which was not easily proved, but had left Ms Shamsalipoor "terrified" of returning.   He also believed that her marriage to him will have put her at further risk, if she was forced to return.
"I haven't been eating, I have been having some trauma at night, I couldn't sleep," he said.
"Deeply...it hurts really hard. It's like they have taken part of me out, they have taken something that was really part of me, they have taken part of me and I can't feel life.  It has been eight months now, and now it is worse.   I haven't been to Darwin, and even I go to Darwin, if they deport her back...do you know what will happen to her?
"Does the Australian people consider this?  Do they know how ugly those governments are in Iran?  They don't.
"...If she goes back to Iran, there will be something really bad happen.  And then, then, I cannot survive.  That is what I am saying to people. I cannot survive."
Yeronga High School teacher Ken Myers, who is also the director of Helping Hands International Australia, a refugee relief centre, said while he had seen a number of students moved previously, he had not "seen anything quite like this before".
"The whole school community is really hurting," he said.
"Our students, our teachers – teachers by nature are typically compassionate people, because that is what the profession requires, you become a teacher because you want to help somebody.
"...I understand the government believes that what they have done is appropriate, and they have worked within the laws they have written, I understand that part, but everyone I talk to, and sure, everyone may not agree with me, but everyone I have spoken to, is saying, 'where is Australia's compassion?'
"...Where is that compassion from Australia?"
Mr Myers said Ms Shamsalipoor had spent four years at the school working hard to be able to contribute to Australian society.
"She was performing, she is an arty type girl and she wants to be a midwife," he said.
"She is doing appropriate subjects to do it and she is getting As, Bs and Cs in everything she is doing to achieve it. 
"She is not a straight A student, but she is a hard worker and she is succeeding in every subject. 
"She wants to be a mid-wife, she wants to contribute to Australia and every indication from her teachers is she will succeed.
"So there is a person here who has the potential to contribute positively to the country – but no, we lock her up in detention."  
Mr Jafari, who will have to leave his family and job to follow Mojgan to Darwin, said all he wanted was the chance for a normal, safe life.
"...I just got married.  Everyone else goes on a honeymoon, everyone else is going to their new house, we have never experienced that.  For 18 years, we have never had a peaceful life. I and my wife only want to live.  Not to have a good job, not to have a great job.  We just want to [contribute] to this country."