Briggsy

There is a world of difference between 30-year-old single mothers choosing to come to Pattaya to work the foreigner scene aiming for long-term financial security and teenage girls trafficked, usually from hill tribe backgrounds, to Bangkok to work in the Asian scene. They are kept in line by violence and intimidation and the forced use of drugs. "Forcing and coercion" describes the latter perfectly. They did not choose to come. The procurer goes to the villages, promises their parents a good job in Bangkok, pays some money and whisks them off and then they are trapped in a world they did not choose. They are kept in that world because they are powerless, enslaved by debt, kept in line by the thugs that are paid to ensure that, forced into drug addiction and have their movements severely restricted. They are certainly not free to leave.

Yes, happened to me in the UK. Somebody paid with a Canadian Shell card. It turned out that was not acceptable in the UK, only UK Shell cards. Money deducted from my pay. The year was 1989. I wrote to him in Canada and he sent me a cheque in Canadian Dollars that cost me £15 to cash leaving me with next to nothing!

Looks like a nice house, well, it did.

We have been down this road many times before. Foreign police department donates highly trained detection dogs to Thai Customs/Police etc. The dogs are then not used as it is lambaak to have to transport them around and look after them 24-7. They will just be dumped in a kennel or compound somewhere as has always happened previously.

It is not clear if the snares were targetting the elephants. In fact, they probably weren't. If they were wire snares they were probably after an animal about the girth of a baby elephant's trunk such as a civet cat, wild boar, etc. All protein for the pot.

Don't move to the countryside. Those fighting cocks will drive you up the wall.

I do exactly this too. If you need to cancel/change the flight date, you can deal with the airline. If you buy through a ticketing agency, the airline may direct you to them which can be a hassle. Still, I hope the victims here get all or some of their money back. Consumer rights and avenues for recompense are limited here.

All these initiatives espouse lofty aspirations. By the time it gets down to the enforcement level, and here I would assume that would fall to the police, it will have morphed into a money-making scheme. Guaranteed. You could stand by the side of any busy road in Thailand and witness multiple serious traffic infractions every single minute. If anything, it has got worse in the last ten years.

From the report it sounds as if she has a myriad of problems not just the rings and bracelets.

Yes, I had the same experience from Immigration Jomtien, that is the Certificate of Residence is worded multi-purpose. "Apply for a driving licence, buy, sell [a vehicle] or transfer a vehicle registration." I suppose it saves them having to muck around. They can just use the standard template each time.

As I explained at great length in my post of Wed 27 Nov in this thread, the previous behaviour of Immigration at the border, particularly the 2 Bangkok airports, towards long-stayers not on extensions issued by local Immigration Offices does not fill me with confidence. The poster @rkh_ clearly stated the IO's scepticism and implied disapproval of this visa and its allowance to stay full time. This is my second piece of evidence. The third piece of evidence, again previously explained at length, is Immigration's track record of contradicting the MFA and very liberal interpretation of the denial of entry rules. I explained how METV-holders were routinely denied entry if Immigration felt they had "stayed too long". Finally, again previously explained at length, I made the point that I hope I am wrong but previous experience points in the other direction. I hope we don't see denials of entry to DTV-holders. Please read my post of Wed Nov 27 which clearly lays out the previous behaviour of Immigration. I hope this explains my viewpoint to your satisfaction. @GroveHillWanderer

What do you mean by "can no longer get a work permit"? There is no upper age limit.

Get a job and a work permit. No need for 400,000 in the bank if extensions based on work permit. If no job in Thailand, then work overseas, 400,000 or 40,000 per month should not be a problem. If no need to work, 400,000 or 40,000 per month should not be a problem If no job and no money, please explain what you are living on and how you are "supporting your Thai family"

259 for 470 grams in Makro Pattaya.

Banks have to consider compliance issues both domestic and international. The potential regulatory investigations, fines and reputational damage lead them to err on the side of caution.

@Marvo Firstly, have you grasped you need to be physically outside of Thailand to apply for a DTV? You cannot apply from within Thailand. You seem to be suggesting you could apply online for a DTV from within Thailand or you could apply for a DTV at an immigration office within Thailand. Both are not possible. Assuming you know the above, then I assume your plan is to go outside of Thailand, presumably with a re-entry permit keeping your extension of permission to stay alive based on marriage and apply for the DTV in your home country. I suspect the embassy would not be concerned about this. I applied for my DTV with a live Non-Imm O (no extension) and they did not mention it. However, assuming you obtain the DTV, you then have a minor logistical issue. You would need to re-enter Thailand on the Non-Imm B re-entry permit. Then cancel the extension at your immigration office, surrender the work permit and leave Thailand within 7 days. The Immigration Office would say nothing as they would know nothing about your DTV. And finally re-enter on your DTV. The DTV has a validity of 5 years so no time issues there. I think this makes sense.

Back in the day it was obligatory for the police in these situations to report the media a) the contents of the ashtray b) the number of empty beer bottles in the room and then draw conclusions from that. With the march of technology, time must have moved on.

And the relevance to my post is?

Yamaha Aerox?? Powerful? 155 cc.

Food contamination, be it bacterial, foreign objects, whatever, can of course happen anywhere. I personally find that a small restaurant where the person preparing the food is the owner or closely linked to the owner seems to correlate with a lower chance of contamination than a restaurant staffed by mainly kids on low wages with no vested interest in the short, medium or long-term success of the establishment.

Yes, he will still need to find the 20k for overstay PLUS he will likely be convicted of 'insulting public officials' resulting in a separate fine. There was an identical case several years ago, also in Phuket. He ended up getting locked up for months awaiting his court case on the 'insulting public officials' charge. He then kicked off during the court case! I can't find the report now.

Initially the London Thai Embassy will be looking for an account with monthly statements holding the required funds (£13,000, can't remember) so you need a monthly statement from a current account. A Premium bonds bond record will be rejected. The money does not have to season so you can just move it in to the current account a week before the statement date. Application must be made via the online evisa and you need to be outside of Thailand when you apply. Think of the two steps are separate and discrete. The cancellation of the work permit and permission to stay based on the Non-Imm B and then the application for a DTV visa. They will not impact one another. On a wider point, are you sure you want a DTV? As a spouse of a Thai, you have other options which may be better such as a non-Imm O visa with the option of extension based on marriage to a Thai.

I am going to stick my neck out and say this accident was wholly avoidable.

Another question they like to ask is "What you do in Thailand?" The truthful answer is I have a DTV visa under the WORKcation category which allows me to WORK remotely. The issue is the visa is stamped with "Employment prohibited". I doubt the IO is going to quickly grasp the nuanced difference between 'working remotely' and 'being employed in Thailand'. I will therefore avoid the word 'work' at all costs and perhaps use a stock answer, 'abide by the conditions of the visa' or alternatively, more accessibly, 'go Pattaya'. Answering in Thai may also give the wrong impression (see earlier 'work' comment). It's a minefield! 🙂

Good job he was wearing an armoured jacket.