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A Government spokesman said that as at noon today (January 12), the Immigration Department's hotline (2829 3010) had received 877 enquiries and 1,406 requests for assistance.

Meanwhile, there were still 56 cases in which the callers were able to provide the personal particulars of the residents concerned as well as some information about their last known locations. Among them, 31 were reported to be in Thailand, eight in Indonesia, one in Malaysia, and 16 in other places. There were no reported cases involving Hong Kong residents in Sri Lanka and Maldives.

In addition, there were still 121 Hong Kong residents whose family members have not provided the personal particulars or specific information on the last known locations of these residents. The Immigration Department is liaising with the caller in each of these cases to gather the required information for immediate follow-up action.

Fatalities involving Hong Kong residents remained at 10, with no new reports so far. As of today, a girl is still hospitalised in Thailand.

On the multi-disciplinary support team from the HKSAR Government, the spokesman noted that in view of a decreased demand for the support team's services, its deployment in Thailand would continue to be adjusted, although all essential services would continue.

The help desks set up in Phuket and Bangkok International Airport are operating only at busy hours. Three telephone hotlines will continue to operate round the clock to provide assistance to Hong Kong residents. They are: 096471215 and 096471208 (for calling from Thailand) or Hong Kong number (852) 9038 6578.

Local Hong Kong residents are urged to call the Immigration Department's hotline at 2829 3010, if necessary.

On the DNA database set up by the Thai authorities to help verify the identity of victims in the disaster, the spokesman said that Hong Kong Police continued to contact relatives of un-located Hong Kong people for the collection of DNA samples. The Police have so far taken samples from 27 family members of the victims.

A dedicated web page containing information on the tsunamis can be accessed through a hyperlink at the Government's homepage (www.info.gov.hk) or the Immigration Department's homepage (www.immd.gov.hk). The total page view up to January 11 stood at 1,182,010.

The web page provides, with the consent of families concerned, information on the personal particulars of Hong Kong residents reported to have lost contact with their families. Hyperlinks had been established with the dedicated websites of Thai Government and Red Cross on the tsunamis.

The spokesman also advised people to beware of suspected fraud emails soliciting donations to help South Asian people affected by the tsunamis. Reports on such emails can be made to the Police at 2860 5012.

Ends/Wednesday, January 12, 2005

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