The Federal Government continues to work with domestic and foreign airlines to bring home Australians stranded in various parts of the world due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this week there were about 14,000 Australians scattered around the world, a number that over the weekend was reduced to 11,000.

“It doesn’t mean that all of the people wish to return to Australia and many of them are long-term residents of the countries in which they’re located,” Foreign Minister Marise Payne told ABC television’s Insiders program on Sunday.

According to Payne 300,000 people have returned to Australia since 13 March, most of whom were onboard 50 cruise ships.

Yesterday, three flights from the Philippines returned to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in what the Minister described as a “mammoth effort” that took 12 sweeper flights from around the Philippines to bring people to Manila through a “very, very stressful, high pressure lockdown environment”.

“I’m very glad to see that. But there is more to do,” she said, stressing that most of the Australians stranded are in India, followed by Indonesia, Thailand and the Plilippines.

“We are also very focused on making sure that every single Australian who needs an application to leave India has that facilitated by the High Commission,” she said.

The government is in discussions with a number of airlines to identify flights in Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay as well as South Africa.

“We are using multiple mechanisms to return Australians to Australia,” she said citing data from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

“We still encourage Australians to take those flights now, and we are using every means at our disposal to support Australians who are in some of the most difficult places to return.”

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Meanwhile, most Australians will have to foot extravagantly priced bills for flights home but can apply for an emergency loan if they’re struggling financially.

There are 220 people in Lebanon desperate to come back or in places that are not connected. Australians have been told to use commercial means to get home where possible, or find ways to get to the key hubs where Qantas and Virgin are still running flights: London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Auckland. In some countries, commercial flights are no longer an option.

“Looking at how we get government-assisted flights, whether that’s working with the private sector or otherwise, is what the government needs to do,” Payne said.