Al Jazeera reporter Dorothy Parvaz, who, according to Syrian officials quoted by the network was detained after landing in Damascus on 29 April, has been deported to Iran, the news network reported today, again quoting Syrian officials. The network released a statement saying it had received information that she had been moved to Tehran.

Syrian officials had said earlier that Parvaz was in their custody, according to Al Jazeera. But Syria’s Al Watan newspaper and the New York Times quoted Syrian officials as saying that Dorothy had left Syria on either 1 or 2 May.

“We are calling for information from the Iranian authorities, access to Dorothy, and for her immediate release. We have had no contact with Dorothy since she left Doha on April 29 and we are deeply concerned for her welfare,” Al Jazeera said.

IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills said: “The case of the detention of Dorothy Parvaz has been marked by an unacceptable lack of transparency and information. Now we hear that she has apparently been deported to Iran. We call on the Syrian and Iranian authorities to officially confirm or deny this report, and to provide substantive information about the reasons for her detention, reported deportation to Iran, and well-being. The treatment of journalists in Iran and Syria is fuelling fears that Dorothy Parvaz has been detained because she is a journalist. No journalists should be arrested and imprisoned because of their work.”

Parvaz, a 39-year-old journalist working with Al Jazeera’s English-language channel, has been out of contact since she landed in Damascus on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha, Al-Jazeera reported. Parvaz, a U.S./Canadian/Iranian national, has been working out of Doha since August 2010 for the network.