Bahrain Mirror: The Associated Press reported that Australian officials have raised with Thai authorities the plight of an Australia-based refugee professional soccer player who was detained in Bangkok and fears deportation to his native Bahrain, Australia's foreign minister said Friday.

Rights groups are urging Thai authorities not to deport Hakeem Ali Mohamed Ali AlAraib to his homeland, where he faces imprisonment for what his supporters say are political reasons. AlAraib was detained at a Bangkok airport on Tuesday.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said AlAraib, 25, was accepted as a refugee and resettled in the Australian city of Melbourne last year, but is not an Australian citizen. Australia can demand consular access to its citizens detained overseas.

"He's not an Australian citizen ... and he's also traveling on U.N. papers. So we have raised that matter. Our post in Thailand is aware of it and is following up on that," Payne told a reporter at a Sydney foreign policy think tank.

Payne did not directly respond when asked whether AlAraib is at risk of being deported to Bahrain.

Her department later said in a statement that Australian embassy officials in Bangkok were in direct contact with Thai authorities regarding AlAraib. The department would not make further comment due to privacy obligations.

Arabic Version