Thailand warns families of tsunami victims to stay away
Monday, 03 Jan 2005 16:11
Thailand's foreign minister has urged the relatives of those people missing following the Asian tsunami disaster not to travel there in search of their loved ones.
Surakiart Sathirathai appealed to families to stay at home amid fears that the efforts of recovery teams will be hampered.
"Relatives want to come here but we would like them to stay in their home countries and collect information on medical and dental records," he said.
The Reuters news agency reports that around 4,000 people are still missing in Thailand, including 1,600 foreigners, the majority of whom are thought to be Scandanavian
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has confirmed that almost 200 British nationals are likely to have died in Boxing Day's tidal wave disaster.
Mr Straw told a news conference on Monday that in addition to the 40 confirmed British deaths, 159 UK citizens were "highly likely to have been involved as victims of the disaster".
"The presumption has to be that a significant proportion of them have been killed," the foreign secretary told assembled journalists.
Mr Straw said the Metropolitan Police had drawn up the list of estimated British fatalities, with most victims thought to have been in Thailand when the tsunami struck.
The Foreign Office has so far confirmed the deaths of 29 Britons in Thailand, eight in Sri Lanka and three in the Maldives. The foreign secretary confirmed that 43 British police officers are currently working in the areas affected to help consular officials identify the dead and missing and provide assistance to British families.
Mr Straw added that the Government was contributing to the repatriation of victims' remains and said that 113 family liaison officers had been made available by police to help counsel grieving families.
Defending the Government's decision not to release a suspected death toll earlier, the foreign secretary stressed that early reports inflating the number of British fatalities after the September 11 terror attacks had caused unnecessary suffering to families.