A young Perth couple imprisoned in Iran since July have been identified as travel bloggers Jolie King and Mark Firkin.

The pair, from Cottesloe, were seized after allegedly flying a drone without a license and are now being held in the notorious Evin Prison.

The Australian Government has been negotiating their release since they were detained about 10 weeks ago, according to The West Australian.

With matters being pursued at a diplomatic level, Attorney-General Christian Porter told 6PR this morning that Iran was a difficult country to deal with.

“The limits of the Australian Government are real,” he said.

“None of us are immune from trouble whether you are in Bali or Iran, we need to be very careful. There are some countries that you need to be extraordinarily careful in.”

Since 2017, the pair had travelled around the world documenting their adventures for around 20,000 followers on their The Way Overland Instagram and YouTube pages. Their posts show the couple regularly captured aerial footage using a drone.

Camera Icon The couple, who packed up their lives in Cottesloe two years ago had been travelling from Perth to London. Credit: Instagram

They posted photographs and video of themselves travelling through northern WA, the NT and onto Asia, with their last post on social media from Pakistan in late June.

The couple decided to film their journey to prove that maligned nations are suitable for tourism.

“Our biggest motivation behind the vlogs is to hopefully inspire anyone wanting to travel, and also try to break the stigma around travelling to countries which get a bad wrap in the media,” they wrote.

Their silence online had prompted concerns from friends on Facebook.

In a statement released by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Thursday, their families said: “Our families hope to see Mark and Jolie safely home as soon as possible.

“We have no further comment to make at this stage and ask that the media respects our privacy at this difficult time.”

The Times has reported Ms King was told by the Iranian authorities that she was being detained in hope of a prisoner swap.

Camera Icon Jolie King poses for an Instagram photo. Credit: Instagram Camera Icon The Times has reported Ms King was told by the Iranian authorities that she was being detained in hope of a prisoner swap. Credit: Instagram

The notorious Evin prison is where Iran holds its political prisoners and has a reputation for being the scene of various human rights abuses, including summary executions.

The husband of British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is being held in the same prison, has painted a disturbing picture of the conditions being faced by the couple while behind bars.

Richard Ratcliffe told ABC’s AM program that she met Ms King after she too came out of solitary confinement.

“I know that the girl who is in now with Nazanine came through scared and disoriented and obviously had been quite intimidated by being interrogated for all that time in solitary,” Richard Ratcliffe said.

He said his wife had spent more than eight months in solitary confinement where the cells were the size of a double bed, there were no windows and prisoners were regularly taken out for interrogation.

Camera Icon The couple have documented their adventures on the Instagram and YouTube pages The Way Overland. Credit: Instagram

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed three Australians have been detained in Iran and consular assistance is being provided to their families.

Another British-Australian woman being held in Iran, an academic who had been lecturing at an Australian university, has been given a 10-year sentence.

While the charges against her remain unclear, 10-year terms are routinely given in Iran for spying charges, the Times reported.

“All Australian citizens and holders of dual nationality with Australia who are travelling to or through Iran are urged to follow the travel advice on the DFAT Smartraveller website,” a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told AAP on Wednesday.

Read The West Australian’s full subscriber exclusive story: Perth couple detained in Iran for ‘flying drone’