Two Australian Travel Bloggers Held and Imprisoned in Iran

Two Australian travel bloggers and social media influencers have been detained in the country of Iran. Mark Firkin and Jolie King were arrested ten weeks ago however the news of their arrest came to light only on Wednesday. According to Australian Broadcasting Source, the reason for the arrest is because they were flying a drone without a permit. 

The travel bloggers run a YouTube channel with a huge number of subscribers. The couple runs a travel blog called the ‘The Way Overland’ and they regularly post about their travel plans on Instagram too.

The couple hasn’t posted any content on their Instagram and Youtube account since the end of June. On the blog, however, the couple had mentioned that they have plans to travel through Central Asia and Iran before heading to Turkey.  

Jolie King holds a UK passport too. It is believed that they are in Tehran’s most notorious Evin Prison. 

Besides this couple, another lady with Australian-British dual citizenship is behind bars for more than a year in Iran according to Australian news broadcaster- ABC. 

The families of these detained Australian nationals are being counseled by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT). “[We] hope to see Mark and Jolie safely home as soon as possible,” their families said on Thursday. 

Australia has warned its citizens as well as citizens with dual nationality with Australia not to venture into Iran or they could be “arbitrarily detained or arrested.”

Iran is detaining several citizens with dual nationality in the recent years. There is growing tension between Iran and western countries like the UK and America. The tensions escalated when Britain warned Iran not to sell oil to Syria from a tanker that was seized however they didn’t follow suit and broke the EU economic sanctions. 

Likewise, there has been rising tensions between Iran and America when four oil tankers were hit by blasts albeit Iran denied the accusations. Each country has said to have to shot down each other’s drones. Clearly the detentions are as a result of growing tensions between the concerned countries.

The UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab met Iranian’s ambassador on Wednesday and “raised serious concerns about the number of dual national citizens detained by Iran and their conditions of detention.”