Government ‘doing more’ to help bring Australians home
Australians stranded in Qatar will soon be able to travel to Saudi Arabia by bus as the federal government works to bring citizens home safely from the Middle East.
With the closure of Qatar airspace, Deputy Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite said bus transfers from Doha to Riyadh will be possible.
“We made a security assessment that the opportunity for people to return home is much better in Riyadh because there are greater openings in the airspace,” the deputy minister told reporters on Saturday.
Upon arrival in the Saudi Arabian city, passengers will need to book on commercial flights back to Australia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade will provide “basic” accommodation support.
Bus passes from Kuwait are also being evaluated.
Mr Thistlethwaite said the government was exploring “all options” to repatriate thousands of Australians stranded by conflict, including government-commissioned repatriation flights.
For now, commercial flights remain the best option.
“Australian consular officials in the region and DFAT officials at home are working 24/7 to make sure we can do everything we can to support Australians to return home,” Mr Thistlethwaite said.
The comments come after exhausted Australians returning from the conflict-torn region claimed their airlines were helping them more than the government.
The first flight from Abu Dhabi to Australia landed in Sydney on Friday morning, with only a third of its seats filled.
Etihad EY450 passenger Julie Pearce questioned whether the government was working with airlines to fill the few flights departing.
He said that he was only able to board the 300-seat Boeing Dreamliner through his daughter, who previously worked for the Emirati airline and had a connection with him.
“There could have been a lot of people there this morning but they didn’t,” Ms Pearce said.
Fellow passenger Trudy Schipelliti also questioned efforts to fill planes.
“It was pretty disgusting because there were so many people waiting to get out,” he said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said she was disappointed by reports that planes arrived with hundreds of empty seats.
Last week, 12 regional countries, including Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, were attacked by Iran.
As of Saturday morning Sydney time, 1324 Australians had returned from the Middle East on eight flights since Wednesday.
Due to increased drone and missile activity, further flights are planned from Dubai to Sydney and Melbourne on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the department has opened registrations for the Crisis Portal for Australians in Iran, Israel, Qatar and the UAE, as well as Bahrain, Kuwait and Lebanon.
Smartraveller continues to advise Australians not to travel to Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, UAE and Yemen.
The federal opposition has called for government-commissioned repatriation flights.
There are 24,000 Australian travelers and residents in the UAE; approximately 115,000 of these are in the Middle East.
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