thaiwanderer

> I suspect that the sister in law simply fessed up to what she was doing, not suspecting that what she was

> doing was wrong, and got deported. Blame the hubby and his wife for organising things incorrectly.

I hate to say it but I agree. Anyone who's ever trafficked some people knows that you need to solidly coach the people passing immigration, they're the weakest link because at that moment they're out of your control. They key-word is "h-o-l-i-d-a-y", no more, no less.

theres definitely a story there!

he imports a wife, has a child, can't afford childcare so imports wife's sister

and then has the front to moan about it - is their no embarassment for being such a poor excuse for a husband and father?

scum scum scum

assuming of course they aren't actually doing something else

Why be so nasty on the guy?

He and his wife are both working earning a living, trying to bring up their kids. He gets more respect from me

than a muppet mouthing off like you. Scum, my friend is far to good a word for the likes of you!

Anyone who has moved back to their own country with their Thai wife knows the huge hurdles and cost this involves.

Getting foreign citizenship is no easy achievement for any Thai lady. Working in a foreign land, be it a cleaner or corporate leader

while trying to raise children demands respect. I take my hat off to all the people that have managed to secure a new life for their

partners and family in any foreign land, legally ofcourse.

You have serious issues!

why be so nasty on this guy?

if he was earning a living as you suggets he wouldn't need cheap / 'free' childcare

breeding itself does not demand respect, nor does 'trying' to raise kids - its difficult yes but failing to do it does not demand respect

she has my sympathies - yes there are hurdles for her - but he has failed to take care of essentials

There is really little point in taking a position on this matter, either way.

Better reflect on what is going on here, for our own benefit. I have two ideas:

1. Thai authorities including such as grade school teachers and shopowners and even sales people in some establishments, think of themselves as authorities, demanding high respect. Public flaunting of this custom is an extreme challenge not easily shrugged off. Of course this attitude can be very annoying to westerners.

2. The slightest raising of the voice is not infrequently taken as close to uncontrolled shouting suggesting the person is out of control of themselves or seriously lacking in good sense. This could be confirmed by threatening movements, glaring, etc. A barechested passport photo would finish the diagnosis of "complete insanity" to most Thai.

Nothing said in this forum is going to change this.

A measured analysis and worthy of reflection even if the facts, such as they are, do not necessarily justify the outcome.

Burrowes passport was issued some 9 years ago in Australia in replacement of a document that was no longer available to him. The consulate, in Melbourne I believe, issued it at a time when posts abroad could do so manually and without the record being held centrally by the Identity and Passport Service in the UK. In those circumstances the passport may well have borne idiosyncracies peculiar to that post, eg different typeface of bio data and the laminate containing the photograph may well have been applied in a manner different to other issuing posts.It certainly could not have been machine readable since no posts at that time had the capability to produce such documents.

Mr. Burrowes is black.

He checked in at Phuket accompanied by a friend intent upon returning home to the UK at the conclusion of his holiday and had produced a ticket which confirmed that he was travelling on an itinerary which had clearly commenced in the UK.

He presented himself to the embarkation control immigration officer who upon scrutinising his document suspected that it may have been forged. He summoned a fellow officer who concurred that the document was worthy of further scrutiny.

UK travel documents, like probably all others from developed countries, are routinely subject to abuse by those who would wish to migrate to what is perceived to be a better country in circumstances not otherwise available. The most common method of tampering is either photo substitution and counterfeit bio data or impersonation. Inevitably, those who would wish to take advantage of this route are from disadvantaged countries, many of which are African.

There is a large concentration of West African nationals currently stranded in Thailand who would wish to be elsewhere. The trade in counterfeit and forged documents in Bangkok is well recognised as is the fact that it is a staging post for illegal migration and trafficking.

As I said, Mr. Burrowes is black and his passport was not one which would have been recognised as typical of the thousands encountered daily by the Thai immigration.

Showing due diligence the Thai contacted the British embassy in order to verify the provenance of Mr.Burrowes' passport. It was a Friday in the late morning. The British consular staff have Friday afternoons off. It is a perk and they like it. The officer answering the query from Phuket could not trace Mr.Burrowes' passport and reported the fact back to Phuket. This of course was hardly surprising since the document had been issued in Melbourne some 9 years previously and would not appear on the database checked by the consular official. In any event the officer did not choose to speak to Mr.Burrowes ( for if he had he would have been able to satisfy himself of Mr.Burrowes' Britishness and the circumstances of his passport issue ) nor was he minded to pursue any further enquiries until the next working day i.e. Monday. The Thai having been informed that there was no record of the passport issue naturally concluded that Mr.Burrowes was not entitled to the document and proceeded to treat him as an offender with all that that entailed.

Mr.Burrowes in protesting his innocence simply reacted in a manner anyone in his circumstances might have done. The Thai equally were blameless in that at the time they were convinced they had detected a forgery and had captured an illegal migrant. That he was black and appeared to have a bare torso as depicted in the passport photograph simply added grist to the mill and justified his subsequent treatment.

Altogether, this was an unfortunate incident arising out of a combination of factors but perhaps one shouldn't overlook the true nigger in the woodpile, the hapless British consular official whose ineptitude was only exceeded by his evident sloth and eager anticipation of a rather nice long weekend.

forgive my ignorance but is this an acceptable phrase in english?

More info at PH Wan Link

from the link above, to Phuketwan (ironic name!) they are saying the blockade is in response to ANOTHER incident.

The shooting of a youth today.

The cops have to wait for an arrest warrant apparently and the locals think the cops should be acting a bit quicker.

I understand feelings run high but this really is Mobocracy.

Can't get your own way? Get a load of people together and block the public highway!

I'm all for freedom of speech etc but this really is just mob mentality.

They should arrest the lot of them.

And then obviously arrest the shooter too.

This is not doing the tourist industry any good AGAIN !

strange, the affect on tourism was my first thought also

no one - combination of reading toranova, old croc and your comments

Well I will say that my 330,000 baht bungalow is much easier to walk away from than a 15 million baht mansion. Therefore, I don't care if I lose it or not. In fact my wife and I have already agreed that the land which it was built will go to her brother when her parents pass away. The bungalow will be there for us to use when we visit her brother.

I agree that the robustness of the legal structure has nothing to do with the price of the property. But the price of the property does increase the risk, hence it should also increase one's desire in finding a method that best protects that purchase.

the price itself is irrelevant to the scale of the risk, the price to the particular owner is, of course

Nothing said in this forum is going to change this.

or anything else

In all of the cases you pointed out, xenophobia was at one time at the same level it is currently in in Thailand.

What you have illustrated is that xenophobia, left unchecked, can lead to extreme situations for foreigners.

Thailand's xenophobia is not being checked. It is, in fact, rising.

it is not unchecked, its carefully managed

In some areas even the local folks that had lands from over 75 years ago end up losing it in the end. Because property values soar so do their property taxes. Thus they end up selling rather than losing it all together.

?????????????????

If you were just looking for a particular soi, why didn't you ask in your first post?! Why all the palaver with renting carribeans and such. Come to that, how come you're a 'newbie' looking for an easily findable soi on Sai Yuan, one of the best known sois on the island?

bit harsh

i have read statistics in the past suggesting thai prostitutes working outside thailand far exceed those working in thailand

thailand may well be famous for prostitution but does not have a significantly higher proportion of the population working as prostitutes than other asian countries

the disproprtionate noteriety may in part be put down to the class of foreigners who visit

You may well be wrong. Any other Asian country where 4+% (2.8 million)(2004) of the population work in prostitution?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Thailand.

Regards.

if you are going to claim a source suggest wiki is very far from the best

no one - combination of reading toranova, old croc and your comments

to the OP best advice would be to man up and take control

on the basis of the limited information you have supplied and the very fact you are asking advice here about this i would suggest they are confused by what may come over as your indecision, willingness to please and crucially 'weakness'

i shall assume you are farang (if not my sincere apologies - what fate is worse?) if so the easiest way for you to understand the best way to act is arrogant inconsiderate aloof overbearing

save downright nasty for later

in time your love will grow and she will defend you to the ends of the earth

he imports a wife, has a child, can't afford childcare so imports wife's sister

and then has the front to moan about it - is their no embarassment for being such a poor excuse for a husband and father?

scum scum scum

assuming of course they aren't actually doing something else

i have read statistics in the past suggesting thai prostitutes working outside thailand far exceed those working in thailand

thailand may well be famous for prostitution but does not have a significantly higher proportion of the population working as prostitutes than other asian countries

the disproprtionate noteriety may in part be put down to the class of foreigners who visit

the price of the dwelling even when developer sold typically has little to do with the robustness of the legal structure

generally it doesn't affect the structure at all as farangs simply are and never will be part of it, they will also never trully understand it (though i respect you for trying!)

seems she'd done multiple 3 month tourist visits whilst not a tourist - even on their version of events

he took one thai woman to ireland for a better life as a cleaner now wants her sister to have a better life working as their child minder (if you believe his story) - good on irish immigration for stopping the deadbeat wasting 2 lives

Yes but a non Thai company can own 49% of the shares in a Thai company etc.. That has the usual pitfalls but does have the added bonus that if theres a sale of the on Thai company registered overseas the controlling interest / voting shares of the Thai company transfer totally outside the Thai domain..

I know a 65m baht villa that this exact process was used on and that recently changed hands.. No Thai declarations, taxes, or interferance in the transaction yet still legal (if you discount the usual Thai company nominee issues)..

But at 40m, all this rubbish about can and cannot goes out of the window I understand However, if you have that money to invest in a house in a 3rd world country you obviously have plenty of cash and can afford the best legal advice.

Lots of people have quoted me this law.. None have ever been able to back it up.. others have told me you can get PR from bringing in 40m (I even know someone who did it a decade ago) but again its not available to me now to the best of my knowledge.

If I can bring 40m into the country and get either PR or legal ownership of one rai of land.. And still have some control over my 40m.. I am all ears !! Not rumour or 'bloke down the pub said' tho.. Under what legal structure does this work ??

The THB40m exception is perfectly valid via Land Code Amendment Act No. 8 BE 2542 and subsequent ministerial regulations. There is also provisions for exceptions for other investments. However it simply is not a viable option in order to secure land. Its subject to numerous conditions not least ownership lasting the life of the investment, restrictions on type of investment, ministerial approval etc. If you wish to look into it further by all means do so but unless the investment itself is what you intend doing its not worth it and the 1 rai is merely a very small additional benefit that may or may not be granted.

There are far easier ways of securing effective ownership of more land for less exposure with less hassles. The pitfalls of these can be mitigated and avoided but never 100% but then again even if successful with BOI even that is not 100% as only for the life of the investment, possibility of future changes in the law and the simple fact that you will attract far more graft seekers making that much noise.

A question:

Most here advise rental because a non-Thai citizen can never own land.

And there is an oft quoted maxim - "never invest more in Thailand than you can afford to walk away from".

And yet there is another excellent thread on this forum, where members are proudly showing photos of their houses all over Thailand. Some of which could only be described as palaces or quasi hotels such is their size, opulance and cost.

Are all these people so rich they can afford to walk away from these incredibly expensive mansions? or:

Are they so naive that they believe they will never be divorced from their Thai spouse and therefore unlikely to lose all? or:

Have they found a way to get around the rules against owning land and, if so, could they advise others of the secret?

personal choice, risk appetite, ignorance, affluence or combination thereof

never heard of that

only thing i can think of is its a resale after 10 years of the remainder of a 30 year lease????

While the historical perspective is interesting, 5 years is quite a bit out of date considering how much things have changed since then.

nothings changed since 76

well a recently arrived farang (or long termer who hasn't learnt much) is more than welcome not to carry out searches on the land, sign a thai contract they can't read and go to the land office to register it - no worries

lawyers are sharks but sometimes a hired shark is useful to fend off the others (though that can be so they have all the rich pickings!)

depending on the work done 200k isn't necessarily that bad for that

i have in the past recommended very good thai lawyers to farang friends and there have been problems which are really down to communication and expectations - even though these thai lawyers speak good english and have western education

for a farang without a fair deal of experience of doing business with Thais, farang consultants can be an important buffer between the client and the thai lawyers (corporate interactions between thai and farang colleagues are ripe for misunderstandings let alone between thai professional and farang client)

the high fees can be worth it depending on the transaction

however i accept many farang involved firms prey on farangs fears of the fog of thai law and deliberately charge high fees when they aren't really any good or know much themselves

if using a farang consultant even though they cannot be thai lawyers it is still important to check they are qualified in their 'home' country and are paid up current members of that country's lawyer regulatory body

It's horrible,the water is brown.

I also drove into Bangla rd and there is another Mcdonalds up there.

I did not know that as i never go up there.

Thats 3 within maybe 500m of each other

Put one in Kata at least.

OH NO! Then I will feel like corporate america is chasing me!! McDonald's ads nothing!!!

Didn't you see Super Size Me?

waiting for the 'i last visited x number of years ago when it was all bungalows and everything was free, now look at it......'

its a dirty beach (and has been for a long time) but nearby many hotels so is of use to those visitors who don't leave patong during their stay - good luck to them

and at least ronald wais

Farang money is more than welcome. All other activity is just to get the money. Even then Thailand need not be too welcoming because Farangs keep bringing money. It isn't a secret. Thats the deal.

Western are polite with thai immigrants, thai are not polite with westerns. Even tough we saved your ass back in 2004. Thailand: what a great example of civilization

Massive generalisation there, nevermind.

How exactly did you save our ass (and who exactly is 'you' - you personally or every non-thai in the world)?