Distraught kin ignore travel advisory

By Rafael D. Frankel

BANGKOK—Though asked by their governments to stay home rather than come to Thailand to search for missing loved ones, hundreds of family members from dozens of countries around the world have begun traveling here and to the stricken areas on Thailand’s Southwestern coast to do just that.

“I’m just here to offer support, what else can I do?” Matts Wallstrom, 50, from Sweden, said at Bangkok Phuket Hospital as his co-worker looked for his daughter, Anna Zellin, among the lists of the injured.

Like most of the people here arriving to begin what will likely be a search full of frustration and grief, he felt compelled to make the trip.

For those like Wallstrom that chose to ignore their advice, foreign missions here are nonetheless providing what services they can.

Anders Erikson, the press secretary for the Swedish consulate in Phuket, said there were dozens of Swedish relief workers on the ground there and in Bangkok. Social workers, government officials, and doctors from the government, Red Cross and Swedish Church, among others were all there to assist the families.

Nevertheless, government representatives here are trying—albeit sensitively—to dampen expectations of families back home and already here that they will find what they are looking for.

“We understand the natural impulse of families coming here,” Canadian Ambassador Denis Comeau said. “That being said, there really is not much comfort we can give them, and not much we can do either.”

In addition to advising that the chances of finding a loved one among the survivors in the hospital are extremely remote, foreign missions are telling their citizens not to go to the three make-shift morgues set up by the Thai government in the stricken areas since visually identifying the bodies so long after their deaths was all but impossible.

“They have to wait for the results of the forensics teams, and this will take many, many months,” a spokesman for the embassy of Germany, which has around 1,000 of its nationals here missing, said.

While foreign governments have struggled with the demands of their citizens and the logistical challenges thrown upon embassies here, survivors and family members, along with the diplomats themselves, heaped praise on the Thai people and government for their efforts during the crisis.

“The local people rescued me, put me in a blanket, fed me, got me to a hospital,” said Ron Bombinger, 48, from Los Angeles, who was pulled out of the wave by a Thai man. “They won’t stop at anything to help you.”

Many foreign survivors of the disaster told such stories, adding that the night after the waves struck, local residents opened their doors to panic and grief-stricken people from all over the world who had nowhere to stay and had lost all their possessions.

Faced with unprecedented destruction, thousands of casualties, and without the resources of many wealthier countries, Thailand’s performance in its relief efforts has been “phenomenally impressive in a very short time,” Australian Ambassador William Patterson said.

Unlike the other countries afflicted by the Dec. 26 tsunami, the foreign death toll here may be as high as half of the nearly 5,000 confirmed dead and 6,000 more believed missing.

In many cases, foreigners were getting preferential treatment at hospitals, being given beds or operated on while Thais waited outside, Swedish Ambassador Johans Hafstrom said.

“I’m amazed. I think without them we would be in a much worse situation than we are,” the ambassador said.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow said such hospitality was “maybe just the ‘Thai way.’ We feel a special compassion for the people we consider our guests and feel that whatever we can do, we will be glad to do.”

© 2005 Rafael D. Frankel and The Chicago Tribune