Concerns for Australian held in Eritrea

The Defence Minister Stephen Smith says he is very concerned Australian officials have not been able to talk to a dual Australian British citizen who has been detained in Eritrea.

Adrian Troy was working for a security company when he was arrested in December last year.

It is not clear why the 47-year-old has been detained.

Mr Smith says British and Australian officals have been pushing to see Mr Troy.

“The starting point continues to be very strong representation by United Kingdom officials and Australian officals that we are entitled to have access to him in the normal course of events,” he said.

“That access should be given and should be granted immediately.”

Mr Troy also worked as a skipper for Arrow Pearls, a company based in the West Australian town of Broome.

The company’s owner Steve Arrow raised the alarm after he was told Mr Troy had been arrested by the Eritrean navy while he was re-fuelling a vessel at Port Massawa.

At the time, he said family and friends were becoming distraught.

“We have just not been able to get any third party, independent assessement of his health and safety,” he said.

Mr Arrow said they were trying to let

 the world know about his plight.

“The view is now that we just try and keep a fairly high personal profile for Adrian and hope that some sort of negotiations with the Eritrean Government will allow them to see that he’s just a normal Australian worker and he was doing a job,” he said.

source : http://www.abc.net.au

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Posted by farajat on Mar 7 2011 Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry