Evacuation in Lebanon

Jason Phelan

Randa Hellou, who escaped to Syria with her husband and two young children, said her family could have died waiting for government help.

Several countries have announced plans to evacuate their citizens overland via Syria, or by ferry to Cyprus.

The ultra conservative Australian government, to date, has organized three buses to retrieve its citizens trapped in fighting on the Gaza strip. It was later decided that they’re safer left where they are, in a city being shelled by Israeli’s military.

Whilst all the other developed countries whose citizens have become trapped are actively engaged in operations to get these citizens out of danger, Australia, with around 5000 citizens in Lebanon is dragging its feet. It’s seemingly too self absorbed in in party leadership issues, and issues of popularity to actually effectively respond to a crisis.

Randa Hellou, who escaped to Syria with her husband and two young children, said her family could have died waiting for government help.

“The Australian embassy would not answer the phone. We are Australian citizens and the government did nothing to help us,” she said.

“They kept telling us to be patient, but I could see it was getting worse and that we would have died if we stayed.

“We might all be dead now if we had not acted.”