MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia's foreign minister says her officials have raised with Thai authorities the plight of an Australia-based refugee professional soccer player who has been detained in Bangkok and fears deportation to his native Bahrain.

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. Hakeem was detained at Bangkok Airport on Tuesday.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne told reporters on Friday that while Hakeem was accepted as a refugee and resettled in the Australian city of Melbourne last year, he is not an Australian citizen. Australia can demand consular accuses to its citizens detained overseas.

The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy says Hakeem was tortured after a 2012 arrest and fled.