Australia helps hundreds of its citizens leave Lebanon, thousands remain

3/10/2024 11:33

        Australia has organised hundreds of airline seats for its citizens to leave Lebanon, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday, as she urged the many thousands of Australians that remain in Lebanon to leave the country while they still can.
        
        Australia has secured 580 seats on flights departing on Thursday and Saturday for citizens, permanent residents and their families who want to leave Lebanon, Wong told a press conference. Flights were also organised earlier in the week.
        
        She said, some 1,700 Australians and their families have registered their desire to leave Lebanon with the government.
        
        According to the foreign ministry, Australia is home to a large Lebanese diaspora and roughly 15,000 Australians normally live in Lebanon.
        
        Australia has been calling for its citizens and permanent residents to leave for weeks in part because the sheer number of Australians in Lebanon would make a government-sponsored evacuation difficult.
        
        The two flights which depart for Cyprus on Saturday are dependent on Beirut airport remaining open, Wong said.