The Australian government is no longer scheduling flights out of Lebanon, citing declining demand.
The government has assisted 2,280 Australian citizens, permanent residents and immediate family members to leave the country in recent weeks following Israel’s ground invasion.
Another 3,018 have registered interest in leaving with DFAT, but many of those have declined offers to leave on flights this week.
Further flights from Beirut are scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday subject to conditions on the ground.
Seats are still available on those flights, and the government continues to urge anyone who wishes to leave to take any option available to them.
But take-up has been falling, and by Wednesday as little as two-thirds of the seats on offer were being taken.
Some people who have registered have knocked back flights on the grounds they want alternative dates, want to leave with family members ineligible for assistance, or want to attend to family business before leaving.
Others have moved to northern Lebanon where they say they feel safer.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said any further flights would be “subject to operational and security constraints.”
“Flights are not going to be scheduled indefinitely… You should leave now if you wish to leave.”
Coalition says those departing should pay their own way
The Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesperson Simon Birmingham said those who left on government-assisted flights should pay their own way.
“We need to make sure that Australians understand when the Australian government, whether it’s a Labor one or a Coalition one, issues travel warnings and says ‘get out of somewhere’, that they should heed those warnings, not wait for a possible free ticket home,” he said.
“And unfortunately far too many people, around 15,000 Australians, in fact, in Lebanon, have for months and months and months ignored the advice coming from the Albanese government to leave, not to travel to Lebanon and to get out of there while you still can.
“Whilst the government is right to help people now to get out and to provide opportunities where they can, it’s not unreasonable that people should be paying the price of a commercial ticket, as long as they have the means to do so.”
The government has voiced its own frustrations that Australians have been slow to take up options to leave, but has defended its decision to fund the flights as consistent with its approach in similar situations.
“We’re taking the same approach on this as we took to people who had to flee in the earlier part of the conflict after the horrific events of October 7,” Senator Wong said on Friday.
