Thai students remain stranded at Tokyo’s Haneda airport

[webfact]

Thai students remain stranded at Tokyo’s Haneda airport

 

Picture from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand’s Facebook

 

A group of Thai exchange students, who arrived in Tokyo on April 4th en route to Thailand from the US, are to be further delayed after the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) decided to extend the ban on landing any international flights until April 18th, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 outbreak by overseas arrivals.

 

The students, all part of the MPLC Thailand exchange programme, were asked, by their US sponsors, to return home before the scheduled end of their stay.

 

The students had expected to catch a flight out of Japan today, but could not because the CAAT extended the ban until April 18th.  They are reportedly willing to enter mandatory quarantine at state-run facilities.

 

The Thai embassy in Tokyo has sent an official to meet the students and to provide them with cash allowances for necessities and a survival kit bag containing sanitizer gel and face masks.

 

Source: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thai-students-remain-stranded-at-tokyos-haneda-airport/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2020-04-07

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[petedk]

Poor kids. It must be quite an ordeal for them not knowing what's going to happen.

 

Nice to see the Thai Embassy helping out. I don't think all the European embassies seem to be so helpful to their citizens.

[webfact]

Thais stranded in Tokyo airport plead for help

By The Nation

 

 

Five Thai exchange students, who on their way back from the United States found themselves stranded in Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, are pleading for help.

 

Natcha Lapaaneknan, one of the students, posted on her Facebook page that they had booked a flight to Thailand on April 2, however, their plane landed in Tokyo on April 3 without prior notice. They later learned that Thailand had cancelled incoming flights from April 4 to 6.

 

Their flight was then rescheduled to depart on Tuesday (April 7) but was cancelled again after Thailand extended a restriction on incoming flights until April 18.

 

As of Tuesday, Thailand announced it was only allowing 200 arrivals per day.

 

She said they contacted the Royal Thai Embassy in Japan and were provided basic necessities, face masks, hand-sanitising gel and medicines.

 

Natcha said that because they did not have a visa to enter Japan, they were being forced to sleep on seats in the airport.

 

So far, some 15 Thai citizens are stranded at Haneda Airport, including children and elderly, and with restaurants suspending services, finding food is becoming difficult.

 

Natcha said in her Facebook post that they are concerned about being trapped in the airport with no supplies if their flights continue getting cancelled.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30385556

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-04-08

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[JimmyTheMook]

Did they wait line for visa with 200 other people also?

[samsensam]

6 minutes ago, JimmyTheMook said:

Did they wait line for visa with 200 other people also?

 

they are (unlucky) transit passengers waiting for a connecting flight so they dont need visas.

[rabang]

Mehran Karimi Nasseri might have some tips to these kids.

[smedly]

maybe thais on Facebook should be complaining more about this than threatening farangs 

 

No Country abandons their own citizens abroad or bars then from coming back to their own country..................shame on this Government

[Gilltom]

19 hours ago, petedk said:

Poor kids. It must be quite an ordeal for them not knowing what's going to happen.

 

Nice to see the Thai Embassy helping out. I don't think all the European embassies seem to be so helpful to their citizens.

Brilliant for thsi embassy to do that 

[AlienHermit66]

Disgusting that Thailand won't accept them, but I kid you not, they are actually being treated better than normal by Japan. Japan is generally really strict about cases like this, unlike in Europe and elsewhere, where people can live in limbo in an airport for years (Tom Hanks - The Terminal, as an example). In Japan, what normally happens is that if a person cannot enter Japan for any reason, period, the person has two choices: 1) get yourself a ticket to somewhere asap. 2) be put in a room similar to a prison cell, and be charged roughly $1000 a night for as long as you stay there. You bloody well pay that until you, your family, your gov't gets you on a plane - they don't care what the reason that you are not technically allowed to enter Japan. These Thais are "lucky" to some extent that the Japanese are allowing them to stay in the transit area (They have to be in the transit area, since no Thai can get a visa to enter Japan at the moment).