Taipei trying to get stranded nationals back

Francisco Ou, minister of foreign affairs, said Taipei’s representative office in Bangkok is helping “some 500” air passengers stranded at Suvarnabhumi Airport, where police clashed with protesters for two days.

The airport has been closed.

Ou told the press the representative office is asking Taiwan’s carriers to get all the stranded back to Taipei as soon as practicable.

He also warned people not to go to Thailand and India for tours. A terrorist attack in Bombay killed over 100 people yesterday.

Press reports from Bangkok on Wednesday, however, said more than 1,000 Taiwan nationals were marooned in the Thai capital.

On the other hand, the Taipei Travel Agents Guild said more than 2,000 were trapped in Bangkok.

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If the protesters continued to besiege Suvarnabhumi, the Thai authorities may get the old Bangkok international airport reopened to let the stranded leave, a guild spokesman said.

Another airport at nearby Pataya may also be used to carry the air passengers away for home, the spokesman added.

“As a result,” the spokesman said, “we are certain at least some of our stranded clients will return to Taipei on Friday.”

Two Taiwan carriers serve Thailand.

One of them, China Airlines, said one extra flight to Chiang Mai in the north of Bangkok will be made today. The carrier has three weekly flights between Taipei and Chiang Mai on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Today’s flight is expected to carry back from Chiang Mai 313 CAL passengers stranded in Bangkok. They will have to go to Chiang Mai from Bangkok by bus, a CAL spokesman said.

EVA Airways, the other Taiwan carrier, has no plans to make flights to airports other than Suvarnabhumi to get its stranded passengers back to Taipei.

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