465 Thais In Japan Unaccounted For

[Lite Beer]

465 Thais in Japan unaccounted for: Foreign Ministry.

BANGKOK, March 20 - The fate of 465 Thais living in Japan as of Sunday is still unknown, while 46 Thais living in that country are due to arrive home later in the day on fears of a major radiation leak from a damaged nuclear power plant. , according to a statement issued by Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The statement said so far the Thai embassy in Tokyo was able to contact 1,317 Thais living in Japan, while it still could not reach 465 people after a major earthquake and tsunami hit Japan's northeast coast on March 11.

Attempts to contact the 465 Thais have been made but no success was seen due to poor communication facilities, with more than 200,000 households in Japan without electricity.

Presently, about 7,400 Thais have returned home and, according to the statement, another batch of 46 Thais will arrive at Suvarnabhumi Airport aboard a C-130 Royal Thai Air Force aircraft at about 8.30pm Sunday.

Donations given by the public to assist the quake and tsunami victims in Japan through the Thai foreign affairs ministry up to Saturday totaled about Bt32.7 million, the statement said.

In another development, the ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi told journalists that there are now 80 Thais living in Libya and the Thai embassy in Tripoli had contacted and enquired whether they wished to return to Thailand following airstrikes by US and French jets against Libyan forces loyal to Moammar. Gadhafi.

Most of the Thais living in Libya were married to Libyans and settled there, Mr Thani said.

The ministry is prepared to evacuate and fly them home if they wished, as fighting in that country was raging, he added. (MCOT online news).

-- TNA 2001-03-20

[sirchai]

Most of the Thais living in Libya were married to Libyans and settled there, Mr Thani said.

Just on paper?

[asiawatcher]

Sad - the losses will be far more staggering than what is presently being reported. More so for the Japanese.

[Spee]

It's worth noting that the 1317 number is probably just a reference to those known to be in the country (legally). I would speculate there is an equal or larger number in the country illegally, and the Thai embassy may not be looking for them unless relatives from back home are asking.

There is a large Thai & Lao community to the west of Yokohama. My partner and I stay in touch with a small number of people in that area. They got some pretty good shakings, and there were big problems with the mobile phone system early on, but other than that, everyone was okay. As of last week, there were still widespread electrical outages, with some places only having power for a few hours a day. The biggest problem is mobility. With the power problems, the train system has been crippled.

Up north is a whole other story. In general, the stories in the western press have been positively awful. The nuke issues are serious, but western media reports have been way over the top, if not blatantly false. The death toll has been way underplayed. There are entire towns and villages of a few to 5-10 thousand where the people are unaccounted for. It will take 2-4 years for some sense of normalcy to be restored and the area will never completely recover. Don't want to sound like the grim reaper, but I fear the death toll will exceed 50k.