Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang yesterday admitted that the mechanism for helping Hong Kong people stranded overseas needed to be reviewed. He, however, said that the government was not sluggish in extending help to the stranded Hongkongers in Bangkok.

"We have been following the system which has been working well, but this particular incident has revealed there are certain inadequacies in the system and that's why we are reviewing it," Tang told reporters at the Legislative Council yesterday.

The government has a mechanism to assist residents stranded overseas owing to hostile situations, he said.

However, the government found on Sunday that tourists, who traveled by themselves, had been neglected by the airlines in their flight arrangements.

Cathay Pacific Airways gave priority to its ticket-holders and crew members.

"After last Friday and Saturday, we discovered the special flights could not bring all Hongkongers back so we changed our mind," Tang explained, adding that another reason was the deteriorating situation in Thailand.

He denied the accusation of sluggishness in government actions and pointed out that officials on different levels had been closely monitoring the political situation in Thailand over the week.

It is a collective decision to charter flights and the government team as a whole would assume the responsibility over the entire incident, he added.

He also apologized for the inconvenience caused to the stranded holidaymakers, and said the Security Bureau would review the mechanism and submit a report to him.

Commenting on the government's "slow response", Executive Council member Lau Kong-wah said the main problem is probably the fact that no under or acting secretary was in charge of the security bureau when the head was out of town.

Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee was in South Korea last weekend.

"In addition to reviewing the system, the government should tell us how it would cope with similar situation in the future," Lau said.

Former Security chief Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said that the result would have been better if top government officials had actively coordinated and handled the incident.

The chief secretary mourned the death of the Hong Kong man - Lutheran deacon David Yik - who died in a traffic accident when rushing to the Phuket airport overnight to catch a plane to leave Thailand on Monday.

His wife Fung Man-wai suffered minor injuries in the incident.

The family, including her two sons and Yik's body, finally boarded a plane in Phuket at around 6:30 pm yesterday to return home.

Immigration officer Anna Wong Kam-ling, who has been assisting them, quoted Fung as saying she was very satisfied with the arrangement.

The SAR government stopped chartering flights to Thailand yesterday as the Bangkok airports resumed partial operation after the Thai protesters had evacuated. But the government said it would continue to monitor the situation.

(HK Edition 12/04/2008 page1)