Zimbabwean family stuck at Thai airport
BANGKOK: A family of eight from Zimbabwe, including four children, have been stuck at the city’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport for most of the past two months.
They are unwilling to return home because of political uncertainty there and unable to secure visas to a third country.
Immigration officials said they had applied to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the hope of obtaining refugee status. They are being allowed to remain at the airport, rather than a detention centre, while their case is considered.
On Friday, the travellers were settled into a quiet corner of a large waiting area, where they occupied three sofas. Their luggage was piled on airport trolleys, and the children watched a video on a small portable device while the adults talked with reporters and airport personnel.
The Zimbabwean travellers declined to give their names, or to explain how they ended up in their predicament.
Robert Mugabe, who held power in Zimbabwe for 37 years, was ousted last month. That was about a month after the family members were initially blocked from leaving Thailand.
Police Colonel Cherngron Rimpadee, a spokesman for the Immigration Bureau, said the family tried to leave Thailand on Oct 23.
But, they did not have a valid visa for Spain, their destination, so were not allowed to board their flight. And, because they had overstayed their Thai visas by five months, they were fined and banned from re-entering the country for a year, meaning they could not leave the airport.
They succeeded in getting on a flight to Kiev, Ukraine. But, on arrival in Kiev, they were denied permission to travel on to a third country. After they refused to fly to Zimbabwe, they were sent back here. NYT