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Concerns are growing for Australian citizens in Iran, following a major breakdown in diplomatic relations between the two countries last month, especially for one person, who SBS News understands has been imprisoned since 2022.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, director of the Australian Wrongful and Arbitrary Detention Alliance (AWADA), says she is very worried about “at least one, probably more Australian citizens in prison” in Iran, who need the help of Australian diplomats.
“I’m very worried about this Australian citizen. I know that they were talking … Iran and Australia were engaging with one another about that person’s situation,” she tells SBS News.
“I’m very worried that now [that the person] doesn’t have any consular assistance … what will happen to any efforts that might be underway to secure [their] freedom if there is no embassy.”

Last week, Australia suspended all operations in its embassy in Tehran and relocated diplomats to a third country.

It followed the Labor government’s decision to expel the Iranian ambassador, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared Iran directed two attacks against the Jewish community in Melbourne and Sydney. The Australian government will also legislate to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a key branch of Iran’s military, as a terrorist organisation.
The move has been largely welcomed by the Iranian Australian community, who have called for the IRGC’s designation for years. But the fate of one dual citizen now hangs in the balance.

‘A horror situation’
“If diplomatic relations have really degraded, it’s a horror situation for that person and their family,” she says.

“I really feel for them, and I can’t imagine how I would’ve felt if it happened when I was there. It’s a real spanner in the works, and it’s really concerning.

I hope that somehow they will keep the channel of communication open when it comes to this individual.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) did not respond to specific questions from SBS News about the person detained in Iran.
In October 2024, an SBS News investigation uncovered that at least two Australian citizens are being held in Iranian prisons. Despite efforts to seek clarification from DFAT, their status remains unknown.
In a statement, a spokesperson for DFAT said: “The Australian Government remains committed to supporting Australians in Iran in need of consular assistance, even where our assistance may be limited.
“Our ability to provide consular assistance in Iran is extremely limited, both for Australians and dual Australian-Iranian nationals. This advice has been reflected in the government’s ‘Do Not Travel’ advisory for Iran for a number of years.
“We continue to advise Australians do not travel to Iran. If Australians are in Iran, they should strongly consider leaving as soon as possible, if it is safe to do so.”

SBS News understands consular assistance may involve making phone calls to an Australian in custody to establish contact, liaising with local authorities about the Australian’s well-being, providing lists of local lawyers, and helping with communication to family members or nominated contacts.

Martin Kear, an international relations lecturer at the University of Sydney, tells SBS News that “if there are any Australians who got themselves into trouble or needed consular assistance”, Australia now has to rely on other embassies in the region.
“For example, our embassy in Baghdad [could be] talking to Iranian embassy officials in Baghdad at the same time, it just makes it more difficult, though,” he says.
“It still doesn’t stop the Foreign Minister [Penny Wong] from picking up the phone and contacting her counterpart in Tehran. Whether they took that call or whether she would make that call is another thing altogether.

“The day-to-day sort of activities would be hampered by not having a consulate presence in Tehran. But high-level talks or phone calls could still very well happen if either side wanted to take those phone calls.”

How many Australians are in detention?

It is unclear how many Australians are being held in arbitrary detention overseas, but AWADA reports that it has verified 11 people with Australian citizenship wrongfully detained abroad, including one in Iran, whom they are supporting. The organisation anticipates the real number to be higher.

AWADA last year wrote a submission to a Senate inquiry into the wrongful detention of Australian citizens, stating that “at any one time, an unknown number of Australians face imprisonment abroad, having been wrongfully detained by foreign governments or kidnapped by armed groups, terrorist organisations or other non-state actors”.
The organisation explains the number is unknown because “there is no legal definition of wrongful detention in Australia”.
Claire Chandler, liberal senator for Tasmania, who chaired the committee conducting the inquiry, says she hopes the government has “put appropriate mechanisms in place to be able to make sure that any Australians in Iran are safe before the decision was made to make the [Iranian] ambassador persona non grata”.

“That’s a process that the government will work through … I’m sure that they’re doing everything that they can to make sure that Australians in Iran are safe.”
The Senate inquiry recommended an urgent overhaul and update of the Australian government’s framework and practices when responding to this issue.
Recommendations included establishing a specialist team led by a special envoy for those wrongfully detained, to manage cases and lead policy aiming to stop the practice.
In response, DFAT told the committee that there were no cases it would label as “arbitrary detention”.
“Concerningly, there was limited recognition from government agencies that the wrongful detention of an Australian by a foreign government seeking to influence our government is a form of foreign interference,” Chandler said in a statement when the committee’s report was released last November.

“The Committee’s recommendations are designed to ensure that there is a whole-of-government effort to deterring such practices.”

Ramping up hostage diplomacy

Iran has a track record of engaging in hostage diplomacy — an act that some experts describe as arbitrarily detaining foreigners for diplomatic purposes.
According to DFAT’s Smartraveller website, Australians and Iranian Australians are at high risk of arbitrary detention in Iran.

Moore-Gilbert warns that “there is a very real risk that Iran could take more hostages in retaliation”.
The last time Australia was involved with Iran’s use of hostage diplomacy was during negotiations for Moore-Gilbert’s release in 2020. She was exchanged in a prisoner swap for three convicted Iranian terrorists, who had been sentenced in connection with a 2012 bomb plot in Thailand.
“I think it’s a possibility that Iran could seek to retaliate against Australia by arresting more Australian citizens,” she says.

“I think that’s one reason why the [Australian] government was so strident in putting out its announcement that anyone inside Iran right now needs to get out, [and] any Australian citizen should try and leave.

But I mean, they’re very limited in what they can do. They can’t ban people from going to Iran altogether.

Speaking with SBS News in 2024, Dara Conduit, a Middle East specialist at the University of Melbourne, described Iran’s so-called hostage diplomacy as “a highly profitable business model”.

“They will use people as bargaining chips to extract some sort of concessions from their home country. It has been extremely profitable for the Iranian regime,” Conduit said.

“It is a dangerous practice, and the Australian government and the international community have already paid a significant price. With every prison swap and payment, the price of the next hostage increases.

“It just risks more people being taken because it has been so successful.”

‘Capable of anything’

Australians are not the only foreign citizens at risk of arrest in Iran — in August, The New York Times reported at least four Americans are detained in Iran, with two arrested following the Israel-Iran conflict in June.
Shortly after the conflict, a French German national was also arrested on a cycling trip in Iran. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told French newspaper Le Monde he was arrested for “committing a crime”.

Moore-Gilbert warns there are other ways the regime might seek retaliation, saying it is “capable of anything”.

“We can expect the IRGC to be more aggressive. I don’t know what their capabilities are inside Australia, but I do hope that the security agencies in Australia take this threat seriously,” she says.
“There is a real risk that they may scale up their nefarious efforts on Australian territory as a response to this.
“We’re talking about the IRGC. They can do anything. They’re not bothered by international law or even the laws of their own country, Iran. They’ll do what they want.”
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