The federal government has announced a further 20 international repatriation flights to bring home Australians stranded overseas.
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It follows a national cabinet decision to reduce the cap on international arrivals via commercial flights until mid-February, and the decision by international carrier Emirates to suspend all flights to and from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Federal acting Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham said the new flights were in addition to 90 previously facilitated flights.
"These flights will fly from priority areas around the world, making sure that the Department of Foreign Affairs and trade offer their intelligence and knowledge of where Australians most need assistance, target those flights," Mr Birmingham said.
"Indeed we just saw in the last 24 hours we saw a flight land from London into Australia, one of those facilitated flights we've been supporting and we're going to keep them going over the next couple of months."
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Mr Birmingham said these new flights would be "over and above the caps that have been agreed by national cabinet".
"It will create additional places for Australians to get home over and above those caps, by transporting people into Howard Springs in the Northern Territory, Canberra or Tasmania, locations that are willing to work above those caps on a case by case basis," he said.
"We will work closely with authorities in those jurisdictions to make sure that it is all done with the strictest procedures and protocols to keep people safe in Australia, while safely returning Australians to Australia.
"They are our overarching priorities."
A state government spokesperson said they will continue to work with the federal government on future repatriation flights and will provide an update when details of any future flights are known.
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