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Following the hostage taking incident in the Philippines which had caused casualties, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today (August 23) raised the Outbound Travel Alert (OTA) for the Philippines to Black. A Government spokesman urged Hong Kong residents to avoid all travel to the Philippines. Those already there should attend to their personal safety and stay alert.
The Government is arranging charter flights for the relatives of the hostages to fly to Manila tonight and tomorrow morning. Medical staff, social workers and clinical psychologists will also be on board. The Government, through the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, urged tour groups there to return to Hong Kong as soon as possible. For those tour groups which are due to depart, they are advised to cancel their trips.
Residents who need assistance while outside Hong Kong may call the hotline of the Assistance to Hong Kong Residents Unit of the Immigration Department at (852)1868.
For more information, please visit the OTA webpage at (www.sb.gov.hk/eng/ota).
Ends/Monday, August 23, 2010
Issued at HKT 23:53
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