in brief
- 1,324 Australians have returned home on eight flights from the Middle East since Wednesday, while three more flights are expected to depart on Saturday.
- Some Australians are leaving via taxi, as flights return with empty seats.
An Australian government minister says he's "disappointed" repatriation flights out of the Middle East are returning with empty seats, as travellers pay thousands to escape the conflict by car.
Thousands of travellers have been affected after several Gulf countries closed their airspace because of the escalating US-Israeli-Iranian war, forcing airlines to suspend or reroute services through one of the world’s busiest aviation corridors.
Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Matt Thistlethwaite told reporters on Saturday morning that 500 Australians had arrived overnight from the Middle East, but over 100,000 remain stranded.
He encouraged Australians to "make their way to" Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, and "avail themselves of" any available commercial flights.
"The opportunity for people to return home is much better in Riyadh," he said.
"They're taking the situation very seriously."
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) will provide accommodation support for people when they travel to Riyadh, he says.
So far, 1,324 Australians have returned home on eight flights from the Middle East since Wednesday, while three more flights are expected to depart on Saturday.
Cross-border taxi trips on the rise
Stranded Australians are exploring different ways to leave the region and some are choosing taxis to drive across borders as flight cancellations continue across the Middle East.
SBS Arabic spoke to Dubai-based cab driver, Omran Khan, who said interests in cross-border trips had increased.
He says travellers are considering crossing into neighbouring Oman, where flights may still be available.
"A small car costs 3000 dirhams ($ 1,164) from Dubai to Oman airport. A bigger car is 4000 dirhams ($1,553) and bigger than that would be 5000 dirhams ($1,941)," he said.
Khan said he was taking Australians to Oman where Australians didn't need a visa and would be allowed in.
However, he explained he wasn’t taking Australians to Saudi Arabia as "we're not allowed" and was instead taking some travellers to its border with the United Arab Emirates.
'No end game' in sight
The US has not provided a timeline for when it sees the conflict ending, with Donald Trump previously saying it could take over a month.
Former foreign minister Bob Carr described the war, instigated by the US and Israel as "wholly unnecessary" as Iran was "not close" to creating nuclear weapons, a claim disputed by the US and Israel.
"The relatively meagre Iranian response confirms that they did not have the capacity to do what Trump said," he told ABC News Channel on Saturday morning.
"Their response has been weak."
Carr described the US as inconsistent and said that the world doesn’t know what the US's goal is for the conflict.
"America is like a blind giant dancing. And there's no consistency, no sense of strategy. And in this case, no end game," he said.
DFAT has opened its Crisis Portal for Australians in Bahrain, Kuwait and Lebanon, in addition to Iran, Israel, Qatar and the UAE.
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