Government ‘has an obligation’ to repatriate Lebanese Australians

One of nation’s largest Muslim associations says thousands want to escape Lebanon but can’t, and the government must help.

Lebanese Muslim Association Secretary Gamel Kheir.

Lebanese-Australian community leaders say there is a huge number of Australians who want to get out of Lebanon but can’t, and that the government has an obligation to assist them, as they accused leaders of “double-talk”.

On Sunday, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong again pleaded with Australians in Lebanon to “please come home” while Beirut Airport was still open.

With up to 15,000 Australians residing in Lebanon, Lebanese Muslim Association secretary Gamel Kheir questioned “how the government expects them to get out”, adding “we’re sick to death of this double-talk and political rhetoric”.

“The south has been transplanted to the north … There are thousands who can’t get out. They want to get out. This is not something because of the bombing in Beirut, it’s been going on for weeks,” he said.

“There’s only limited commercial capacity in and out of Beirut airport, and no safe border … It’s easy to tell them to get out but you have an obligation to ensure there is a plan of getting them it.” Numerous airlines have cancelled flights out of Beirut.

Mr Kheir said the government could do what happened in 2006 and escort Australians out on ships from Beirut, but said a ceasefire was the only solution.

Senator Wong said she had told Australian citizens in Lebanon to come home “over and over again” since October, adding “we’ve obviously been planning contingency arrangements for some time and you would anticipate we are working with partners to look at various scenarios”.

Smartraveller warned Australian citizens and permanent residents now unable to flee Lebanon “should be prepared to shelter in place for an extended period”.

The anger in the Australian-Lebanese community is palpable, Mr Kheir said, and there was “a lot of psychological damage being done” with airstrikes on Lebanon.

“There’s red-hot anger (in the community), we’re sick of being treated in a hypocritical way,” he said. Over the weekend, Watson MP Tony Burke, discussing the new “Muslim Votes” campaign, told The Daily Telegraph that the Greens and other activists were using the Gaza conflict for domestic political gain.

“Tony Burke is saying the Greens and the opposition are taking advantage, but it’s the hollow talk … that’s creating a vacuum for people, they’re venting through channels other than traditional Labor channels,” Mr Kheir said.

Australian Lebanese Association president Raymond Najar said while options to leave Lebanon were limited, it was still possible. But he said he was “surprised people can even get to the airport through that bloody mess” with southern Beirut bombed on Saturday night.

Head of the Islamic Council of Victoria Adel Salman said Australians were “outraged” by the ­attack on Lebanon.

“Lebanon is already in a very precarious situation, so there are Lebanese people who have suffered so much over the last few months and years, and this has brought further suffering upon the Lebanese people. The community is upset and devastated and angry that Israel could attack a sovereign country, and that Israeli attacks could result in the deaths of so many civilians.”