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| Down Under |
| Australia requests Canada's help to evacuate citizens |
| 2006-07-19 |
| JOHN Howard last night rang his Canadian counterpart in an effort to negotiate passage for hundreds of Australians fleeing Lebanon after a vessel booked by the Australian Government was double-booked by Canada. The Prime Minister rang Canada's Stephen Harper early yesterday evening. "The Canadian PM has offered to try and get a berth for Australians if Canada manages to get any ships into the port tomorrow," a spokesman said. "Given the current circumstances, there can be no guarantees." The Department of Foreign Affairs last night described chaotic scenes at Beirut port, with just a few ferries able to berth as dozens of nations fought to get their citizens out of the strife-torn country. Other chartered ferries had failed to arrive because of deteriorating security, while others were hit by price-gouging by greedy operators who had dishonoured their contracts. "A lot of ferries have been double-booked," a DFAT spokesman said. "It has happened frequently over the past few days - not just to Australia but to a number of other governments. "We (DFAT) are working to ensure Australians who we had scheduled to leave can be evacuated by friendly governments." High-level talks are being held between Australian and Israeli officials in Tel Aviv in an effort to secure safe passage for an estimated 400 Australian families in southern Lebanon. DFAT warned Australians to stay away from embarkation areas until their departure had been confirmed. The decrepit state of Lebanon's telephone system was causing further problems and hindering attempts by embassy officials to alert Australians of evacuation plans. However, the department confirmed a total of 170 Australians had been evacuated in two bus convoys from Beirut. And Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the Government had contracted several ferry companies to begin evacuating hundreds of Australians to either Cyprus or Turkey. He said hundreds more would be able to leave soon on US and Canadian ships. The US Embassy in Canberra confirmed the offer, saying final details on numbers were being worked out. More than 25,000 Australians live or work in Lebanon, with most holding dual citizenship. Mr Howard rejected criticism by the Lebanese community that the Government had been too slow in providing help for Australians to escape the violence. "You have to understand, it is a chaotic situation and it is easy to criticise a limited number of Foreign Affairs personnel who are operating in very stressful circumstances," he said. "The other point I would make is that we prefer not to give a running commentary on what might happen in the evacuation of people. We would prefer rather to actually make arrangements and have people out or on their way out before talking about it." He also strongly defended the Israeli military action. Australians wanting more information should contact the DFAT emergency hotline on 1300555135. |
| Posted by:Oztralian |