Five freed hostages return home to Thailand

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00This has been a welcome well over a year in the making.

00:04Surasakrumnao, having been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October 2023,

00:10arrived back to his home town in Thailand on Sunday.

00:15He was greeted by his loved ones.

00:19I feel so happy to have my son back home.

00:24I'm happy as long as he's here.

00:28He was just one of the five Thai workers who earlier arrived at Bangkok's airport,

00:33finally bringing to a close their ordeal,

00:36to the relief of their families waiting for them.

00:39This is the second group of Thai hostages to have been released,

00:43after a first group was freed back in November 2023,

00:47at the beginning of the war.

00:50At a press conference held at the airport just after their arrival,

00:53the men and their families said they couldn't be happier.

00:57We are very grateful and glad to return to our homeland again.

01:06We are really thankful.

01:11It's like a miracle that my husband has come back.

01:15Over the past 15 months I always kept hope.

01:19I always told my children that one day their father would come back.

01:2531 Thai nationals were captured on October 7th, 2023.

01:30Many lived in agricultural compounds on the outskirts of Kibbutz Sim in southern Israel.

01:35There's still no information on the whereabouts of Natapong Pingsa,

01:39the last Thai worker thought to be held inside Gaza.

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