{"id":536745,"date":"2026-03-13T01:36:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T01:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/536745\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T01:36:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T01:36:16","slug":"aussies-in-the-gulf-have-been-urged-to-fly-home-now-expats-like-jessica-are-staying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/536745\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussies in the Gulf have been urged to fly home now. Expats like Jessica are staying"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a city teeming with expats, Emiratis are a minority in Dubai<\/a>.When the war began<\/a>, an estimated 20,000 Australians were living permanently in Dubai alone.<\/p>\n

And despite Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s insistence that Australian expats still in the Middle East should book a flight home now, plenty have no plans to leave.<\/p>\n

\"Dubai,Dubai has been targeted by an offensive of airstrikes since the conflict began. (iStock\/AP)<\/p>\n

Some also claim the Western world has misrepresented their beloved Gulf home.<\/p>\n

Australian-born real estate broker Jessica Stephens saw the UAE city as a “land of opportunity” and decided to book a one-way ticket to Dubai to grow her career.<\/p>\n

“My life here is very different to Australia, I was working a 9-5 corporate job, and then moving to Dubai and starting a real estate career, my life completely changed,” she told Nine.com.au.\ufeff<\/a><\/p>\n

“There are people from over 200 nationalities and countries living in Dubai. \ufeffThe social scene was the biggest change.”<\/p>\n

Stephens has lived comfortably on the Persian Gulf coast since 2024.\ufeff<\/p>\n

When air strikes began in the Gulf region in late February, Dubai was targeted by a campaign of offensives.<\/p>\n

\ufeffAbout 1700 missiles and drones have been fired at the Emirates so far, according to the UAE defence ministry.<\/p>\n

The airspace was promptly shut, leaving tens of thousands of Australian travellers stranded.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"DavidAustralian-born real estate broker Jessica Stephens said she feels “safe” in Dubai. (Instagram\/jessicaastephenss)<\/p>\n

Flights resumed a few days later, and many scrambled to land a coveted ticket out of the warzone.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Stephens, however, was not one of them.<\/p>\n

“For the first few days of course, I was a little bit nevous and a little bit anxious, it was an unfamiliar situation,” she said.<\/p>\n

“But\ufeff I had complete faith in the UAE government from the very beginning.<\/p>\n

“From day one, I never had any reason for concern.”<\/p>\n

Around 3600 Australians have returned home from the Middle East since the conflict began\ufeff \u2013 most of them tourists who became caught in transit.<\/p>\n

But Wong yes\ufeffterday issued a direct message for expats living in the region.<\/p>\n

“I would speak to the Australians, the expats who live in the Middle East: our view, our advice is if you can secure a seat on a commercial flight, you should take it,” Wong said.<\/p>\n

“Please do not wait until it is too late.”<\/p>\n

This message is likely going unheeded by thousands of expats like Stephens, who said everyone is feeling “safe”.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"DavidThe real estate broker has no plans to fly home, depsite Wong’s message for Aussie expats. (Instagram\/jessicaastephenss)<\/p>\n

She is “more than happy” to leave the seats on repatriation flights for unwitting Australian travellers stuck in limbo.<\/p>\n

“We are not in a rush to go home,” Stephens added.<\/p>\n

“All of my Australian friends here, my Australian clients, everyone I have spoken to, have not felt the need to return home.<\/p>\n

“We are feeling very safe, we know this will come to an end, hopefully very soon.\ufeff<\/p>\n

“We just want the Australian community to know we are safe and well and to not worry.\ufeff”<\/p>\n

Stephens said her day-to-day life has now largely returned to normal, though the number of property viewings \ufeffhas slowed following the flight ban.<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Hutchinson moved to Dubai three years ago. (David Hutchinson)Melbourne<\/a>-born buyer’s agent David Hutchinson moved to Dubai three years ago.<\/p>\n

Hutchinson said he has sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property mostly to Australian expats like himself.\ufeff<\/p>\n

“Financially, it’s been life-changing for me,” he told Nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\ufeffWhile the immediate aftermath of the early strikes required “caution”, Hutchinson said he never felt unsafe in Dubai.<\/p>\n

It didn’t cross his mind to book a flight back to Australia either.\ufeff<\/p>\n

“Dubai is ho\ufeffme,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Whilst caution has been needed, the situation has not been as bad as some media outlets have portrayed.”\ufeff<\/p>\n

Hutchinson said the days following the retaliatory strikes were a little like COVID-19 in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Residents were urged to stay indoors and work from home.<\/p>\n

“This was only for a few days, then the \ufeffmajority of the private sector returned to working from the office,” he said.<\/p>\n

As for any negative sentiment towards expats in Dubai who came to reap the benefits of the tax-free haven, Hutchinson said some portrayals of his lifestyle have been “unfair”.<\/p>\n

Some expats, including influencers and entrepreneurs, have copped backlash online for either not mentioning the conflict or becoming citizen journalists.\ufeff<\/p>\n

“It is very unfair to penalise people or have a negative attitude towards\ufeff people who moved to Dubai in search of creating a better life for themselves,” he added.<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a city teeming with expats, Emiratis are a minority in Dubai.When the war began, an estimated 20,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-536745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}