The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s efforts to support stranded Australians in Israel as Iranian rockets hammer Tel Aviv has been labelled “shambolic” after an evacuation email was sent out which contained an “incorrect link”.
In the email, which requested Australians in Israel to upload their personal details to register for evacuation, contained a link which redirected them to a Department of Home Affairs’ Translation and Interpreting Service for people with limited English.
According to The Daily Telegraph, the website was for people with “limited English proficiency and for agencies and businesses that need to communicate with their non-English speaking clients”, and not to evacuate a high-risk warzone.
An Australian, whose first language is English, spoke to the publication said DFAT’s blunder “pretty much sums up this whole situation” after he was sent a link to book an interpreter instead of a seat on a plane to get home.
“Lots of Aussies got an email from DFAT asking for more information but the link didn’t work – which pretty much sums up how this whole situation has felt,” the stranded Australian said.
“Unless someone was planning to translate their evacuation request into Mandarin, Hindi or Swahili, it wasn’t much help.”
The Australian stranded in Israel said it “took days” before the Department and the Australian Embassy in Israel were able to set up an operational system to gather passport, visa and flight details from trapped Australians.
“We just hope it actually leads to action … It’s not enough to just collect names – people are scared and want to get out,” the Australian traveller said.
“It’s shambolic, and would almost be funny if it wasn’t such serious and stressful situation.”
Speaking to Sky News, Australian man Daniel Wolman said he had “reached out” to the government, but they had not reached out to him or the other Australians he was with.
“We’ve just been told to register our names on a link with DFAT … my name’s on the list – as far as it goes, we’re being told very thoroughly we can’t do anything, which I do understand because the airspace is closed, but we’re not feeling supported,” Mr Wolman told Sky News.
“We’re very much here on our own and I’m waiting for any solution and we’ll have to hear from our government, from our Foreign Minister Penny Wong, which I’m not being overly optimistic about that, but we’re just not hearing anything at all from the government.”
Mr Wolman said the airspace above Israel was closed with no foreseeable reopening for safe passage home and there was no safe way to drive through Israel to cross borders.
“Obviously, our flights have been cancelled,” he said.
“I’m with a group of men that have all left wives and young children at home. So, very, much trapped and don’t know when we’re going back to my young, 20-month-old baby and my wife.”
Mr Wolman said he had been in Israel for almost two weeks with a group of Jewish and non-Jewish Australian men who were visiting to learn more about the atrocities of October 7.
“We just came to learn and really understand from seeing it first-hand, going to speak to government officials and really understanding what they’re doing and what the next steps are,” he said.
“(We) would have never expected this to happen while we’re here and it’s escalated obviously to another level. It’s something that needs to be done to protect the world, destroying the potential of the nuclear weapon in dangerous hands, so unfortunately we’re at a crossroads – we’re here at the wrong time for us but the right time (for) what they’re doing and we just don’t know when it’s going to come to an end and we can get out of here.”
SkyNews.com.au has contacted DFAT for comment.
Among those trapped in Israel is Olympian and former senator Nova Peris who shared here “extremely frightening and distressing” experience witnessing “unrelenting ballistic missiles” raining down across Israel.
Ms Peris, who was in Jerusalem on the weekend, said she was with 11 other Australians, including First Nations people, who had spent the early hours of Friday and much of Saturday in a bomb shelter.
“There have now been three waves of missiles fired directly from Iran, targeting civilians, destroying homes, and causing widespread devastation,” Ms Peris wrote.
“We can’t wait to come home. But for now, we’re safe, in bomb shelters, we’re together, and our hearts are with all those living through this terror.”
Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other on Sunday, killing scores of civilians and raising fears of a wider conflict, and US President Donald Trump said it could be ended easily while warning Tehran not to strike any US targets.
In Israel, rescue teams combed through rubble of residential buildings destroyed by Iranian missiles, using sniffer dogs and heavy excavators to look for survivors after at least 10 people, including children, were killed, raising the two-day toll to 13.
Sirens rang out across the country after 4pm on Sunday in the first such daylight alert, and fresh explosions could be heard in Tel Aviv.
In Iran, images from the capital showed the night sky lit up by a huge blaze at a fuel depot after Israel began strikes against Iran’s oil and gas sector – raising the stakes for the global economy and the functioning of the Iranian state.
-with Reuters
