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Britons have been warned by a senior MP not to holiday in Iran “because they think it looks cool on Instagram” after a British couple were detained in the country.
Shadow home office minister Alicia Kearns issued the travel warning after Craig and Lindsay Foreman were arrested while on a round-the-world motorcycle trip and charged with espionage.
The former chair of the foreign affairs committee told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday: “The priority is people need to listen to the travel advice. It is not safe for British nationals, most certainly not dual nationals, to travel to Iran.
“I beg anyone who is thinking of doing it, either because they think it looks cool on Instagram, or because it’s a country that – look, I would love to visit as well, beautiful people – please do not go. The risks are really high – you don’t have to have a reputation or a history or an Iranian passport as well to be at risk. Please do not travel.”
Ms Kearns, who led the foreign affairs committee’s report into the UK’s response to hostage-taking, called for specific information to be added to the travel advice page for every country on whether there is a high risk of arbitrary detention there, as was advised by her inquiry – “because unfortunately it’s not even countries you would think of where there’s a risk”.
She added: “Unfortunately, British nationals are at the top of the pile when it comes to authoritarian states wanting to take people hostage.”
Mr and Mrs Foreman, both in their early fifties, were arrested last month and are being held in custody in Kerman, central Iran, after crossing into the country from Armenia around 30 December.
The pair say there were trying to reach Australia for a psychology research project, asking people what constitutes a “good life”, and planned to reach Pakistan by 4 January – whereas Iranian authorities allege they have been “collecting information in different locations in the country”.
Ms Kearns dismissed Iran’s accusations of espionage “almost completely implausible” and argued the couple have instead been taken hostage to be used for geopolitical leverage by the country, “because what they do is they weaponise people’s passports against them”. She said Iran took 66 foreign nationals hostage between 2010 and 2022.
However, she caveated that the UK do not truly know why the couple have been taken. She speculated: “It might be the callous stockpile that Iran likes to keep of foreign nationals, just like Putin has done in Russia, it could be for a specific leverage they want over the UK, it could be leverage they want over Trump and they think they can get through us, or it may be because Iran is feeling weakened because of the attacks and essential defeat of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in so many places.”
The MP urged Keir Starmer “to be doing everything he can personally to get them out”, warning action must be taken soon due to the narrow window of opportunity that exists, usually before a trial has begun, during which people have the best chance of getting out of hostile states.
