A Zimbabwean family that had been stuck at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport for the past three months has finally left Thailand, reports said on Tuesday.
The family of eight – including four children under the age of 11 and four adults – got stranded at the airport late last year, drawing widespread sympathy among Thais.
Reports in December indicated that the family had tried to leave Thailand for Spain in October but lacked visas for onward travel. They were also told they could not re-enter Thailand after overstaying their travel visa and were forced to spend the next three months in the airside area of the airport.
At the time, family members said they could not return to Zimbabwe because they faced persecution following the November unrest that resulted in the ouster of long-serving leader Robert Mugabe.
Their predicament first hit the news after a Thai Facebook user posted a photo of himself giving one of the children a Christmas present.
The Facebook user went on to describe the family’s predicament, which then went viral as questions emerged as to how they had lived at the airport for so long.
A BBC report on Tuesday quoted Thai immigration bureau spokesperson Colonel Cherngron Rimpadee as saying that the family had finally left Bangkok for Philippines.
The report said that a UNHCR refugee camp was located there, “but it was not clear whether it was their final destination.”
