Hong Kong scouts spend night on South Korean airport floor before flying home, as parents demand answers over disastrous trip

Hong Kong scouts slept on the floor of South Korea’s Incheon Airport as they waited overnight to fly home on Wednesday morning because of an approaching typhoon, prompting some parents to demand an explanation from the city’s top scouting association.

The youths were forced to return early from the 12-day Scout Jamboree at campsite Saemangeum in Busan after organisers cancelled the event on Monday because of the encroaching Typhoon Khanun.

The Scout Association of Hong Kong opted to immediately withdraw its 460 scouts, following behind other contingents from the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. The event was originally set to host 43,000 teenagers, mostly aged 14 to 17, from 158 countries.

But scores of Hong Kong parents took to social media to demand an explanation from the association after their children were moved from the air-conditioned Kia Vision Square education centre and sent to Seoul’s airport at 2am, only a short distance away, hours before the flight.

“It is 1am now. The children are already in the airport, waiting for the 8.50am flight. It is so ridiculous that the children are not allowed to stay at Kia Vision Square overnight and have to wait at the airport for over seven hours,” one social media user said. “It is unreasonable. Why did the association’s management make this decision?

One parent who gave her surname as Lai said she had paid about HK$12,000 (US$1,536) for her son’s trip. She called on the association to explain the “unsatisfactory” sleeping arrangements at the airport.

“My son was suddenly told to tidy up his belongings and leave Kia Vision Square at 11pm [Tuesday] night. The arrangement was very messy,” she said.

Lai added that her son was suffering from serious sunburn on his neck, after leaving the campsite on Tuesday morning and walking for an hour to reach a bus station.