Stranded Thais return from Japan, sent for quarantine

Stranded Thais return from Japan, sent for quarantine

Thais who arrived from Haneda airport in Tokyo board a bus from Suvarnabhumi airport to The Patra Hotel for a 14-day quarantine. (Photo by Varuth Hirunyatheb)
Thais who arrived from Haneda airport in Tokyo board a bus from Suvarnabhumi airport to The Patra Hotel for a 14-day quarantine. (Photo by Varuth Hirunyatheb)

A group of Thai people stranded at Haneda airport in Japan after the Thai airport authority extended a ban on all commercial flights to Thailand until April 18 were brought home on Wednesday on a repatriation flight.

All Nippon Airways flight NH847, carrying 32 Thais -- 15 stranded at the airport and 17 others elsewhere in Japan and who wanted to return home -- landed at Suvarnabhumi airport at 3.30pm.

All the returnees will be under quarantine for 14 days at The Patra Hotel, a location prepared for them by the government to check for symptoms of the new coronavirus.

Earlier, one exchange student Natcha Lapaaneknan posted on her Facebook page that she and other Thai students had booked a flight to Thailand from the United States on Thursday, but their plane landed in Tokyo on Friday without prior notice. They later learned that the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) had cancelled all incoming flights until April 6.

Their flight was then rescheduled to depart on Tuesday, only to be cancelled once again after the aviation regulation agency extended a restriction on incoming flights until April 18.

CAAT is still allowing special repatriation flights to enter the country during the ban.

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

On Tuesday, Thailand issued a statement saying no more than 200 people will be allowed to enter the country each day.

The group contacted the Thai embassy in Japan, pleading for help.

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

The embassy staff in Tokyo also helped prepare a special flight and travel documents for them.

According to the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration, over 100 Thais trying to return home are still stuck at airports in several countries — at least 60 in South Korea, 60 in the Netherlands and one each in the United Kingdom and Qatar.

Meanwhile, the Thai consulate-general in Jeddah on Wednesday issued a statement advising Thai citizens who reside in Mecca and Medina to delay their plans to travel to Thailand as Saudi Arabia has suspended all international flights until its government says otherwise.

The statement also said that when Saudi Arabia lifts its ban on international flights, returning Thai nationals still require documents including a "fit-to-fly" health certificate and a certification letter from a Thai Foreign Ministry office in order to enter the country.

Moreover, upon their arrival, they must be in quarantine for 14 days according to the disease quarantine regulations.

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