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A government spokesman said that as at noon today (January 13), the Immigration Department's hotline (2829 3010) had received 877 enquiries and 1,414 requests for assistance.
Meanwhile, there were 52 cases in which the callers were able to provide 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, seven in Indonesia, one in Malaysia, and 13 in other places. There were no reported cases involving Hong Kong residents in Sri Lanka and Maldives.
In addition, there were 96 Hong Kong residents whose family members had 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 actions.
There was one new fatality report relating to a female Hong Kong resident. Once verified, the total death toll will be 11. 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 its services, the deployment of Hong Kong's support team 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 missing Hong Kong people for the collection of DNA samples. The Police have so far taken samples from 27 family members of the missing people.
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 to January 12 stood at 1,191,675.
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/Thursday, January 13, 2005
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