Australia helps hundreds of its citizens leave Lebanon, thousands remain

Australia has organized hundreds of airline seats for its citizens to leave Lebanon, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday, as she urged thousands of Australians who 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 organized earlier in the week.

She said some 1,700 Australians and their families have registered their desire to leave Lebanon with the government.

Australia is home to a considerable Lebanese diaspora, and roughly 15,000 Australians normally live in Lebanon, according to the foreign ministry.

"Please take whatever option is available to you. Now is not the time for you to wait and see, now is the time to leave," Wong said.

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.

Reuters