Australia Deploys Crisis Teams to Middle East to Assist Stranded Australians: Wong

Six teams will travel to the Middle East, although Wong said she could not disclose details of their deployment for security reasons.

Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks at a press conference with the Indo-Pacific Quad at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 2025. Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images

Australia is preparing to deploy six crisis response teams to the Middle East as the government ramps up efforts to assist citizens caught in the escalating conflict and widespread travel disruption.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed the teams would provide additional consular support to Australians still in the region but said security concerns prevent the government from disclosing their exact locations.

“I’m not in a position, for security reasons, to be disclosing to you where and how they are travelling,” Wong told reporters at a press conference on March 4.

She said the additional teams are intended to strengthen the government’s ability to help Australians on the ground.

Around 11,000 Australians pass through the region each day, most of them transiting through the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

200 Australians Return from Dubai

Meanwhile, the first flight to depart the UAE for Australia since the crisis began landed in Sydney at around 10:30 p.m. local time on March 4.

The aircraft left Dubai at 2:30 a.m. the same day and carried 200 passengers, marking the first commercial service to resume after regional airspace closures halted travel across parts of the Middle East.

Wong said the scale of disruption was particularly severe because the Middle East normally acted as a key transit hub for Australians travelling internationally.

“The situation is unprecedented because in this crisis it is the [Dubai transit] hub that we would usually rely on in a crisis,” she said.

Opposition Calls for Faster Respone

Earlier, the Opposition called on the government to step up efforts to evacuate Australians stranded in the region.

Shadow Foreign Minister Ted O'Brien said authorities should focus on getting as many Australians as possible out of the conflict zone.

“There has been double standards by the government in how they have treated the Australian people on this and that is unacceptable,” O’Brien said.

He argued the government had acted earlier to evacuate diplomatic staff and their families but was slower to extend similar warnings to the broader public.

Specifically, O'Brien said several more days and additional missile attacks passed before the same urgency was applied to ordinary Australians.