Canberra, Oct 3 The Australian government has secured over 500 seats on flights for Australians to leave Lebanon.
Penny Wong, the minister for Foreign Affairs, on Thursday, said that the government will offer 500 seats on two commercial flights out of Beirut to Cyprus for Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family members on Saturday on top of 80 seats on flights on Thursday.
She said that 1,700 Australians in Lebanon had registered their intent to depart from Lebanon with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade but that only 35 out of 80 seats secured by the government on commercial flights on Thursday had been filled.
"The operation of these flights will be subject to the security situation and, of course, the airport in Beirut remaining open," Wong told reporters, Xinhua news agency reported.
"What I would say to Australians who wish to leave, please take whatever option is available to you. Please do not wait for your preferred route."
"Now is not the time for you to wait and see. Now is the time to leave," she said.
The federal government has repeatedly advised all Australians in Lebanon to leave immediately and warned that the Beirut airport could close amid the escalating conflict in the region.
The minister for housing, Clare O'Neil, on Wednesday said that there are approximately 15,000 Australians still in Lebanon and that the government is doing what it can to assist them.
Wong said on Thursday that Royal Australian Air Force aircraft have been stationed in Cyprus as part of contingency plans to evacuate Australians from Lebanon but that the government's focus is on commercial flights while Beirut airport remains open.
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