Help: My son has been arrested for overstay

[bazzer]

On ‎4‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 11:43 AM, Thailand Outcast said:

Can I ask, how are you receiving this information? 

He is being visited by friends.

 

 

 

My son has paid fine for his overstay, what is procedure now, and how long does it take, he is being held in   IDC. 

[bazzer]

On ‎4‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 7:36 AM, pattayadude said:

Everybody here is going out of their way to help this father OP from UK who supposedly needs help to get his troubled and broke son out of jail in a 3rd world country half way around the world but later he admitted that he also is broke (by his words "no funds" on a recent post)

Case closed.

 

Jails in every country are full of inmates that they probably wouldn't be doing any time at all and be set free if they could post a lousy bail or  had some money to pay fines or be able to afford even a cheap  lawyer or had parents who could or/and would help them. But they didn't.

 

Next topic please....

Can you read my post again about my remarks about no funds, you will find it a question, not a quote.

 

[BritTim]

2 hours ago, bazzer said:

My son has paid fine for overstay, he is being held in  IDC, What is procedure now, how long does this take.

What has the British Embassy consular section told you?

I assume your son is in the main IDC at Suan Plu in Bangkok. The process will vary slightly if he is being held at one of the regional IDCs.

The basic procedure is to find an airline willing to carry your son back to the UK (the airline must be told he is being deported, and must agree to carry him). Immigration must be told of the proposed flight as they need to arrange transport and escort to the airport for the flight (for which you must also pay). Your son will be escorted to the plane, and will not receive his passport back until arrival in the UK (the aircraft captain will take custody of the passport).

Arrange everything through the consular officials. They handle deportations a lot, and will ensure everything is handled correctly.

If funds are no issue, it should usually take less than a week. However, it is now Songran in Thailand which is likely to slow down the bureaucracy.

Edited April 12, 2019 by BritTim

[user343434]

On 4/5/2019 at 10:27 PM, gk10002000 said:

A question on when one person buys a ticket for another person.  EVA air for example demands to see the credit card used to purchase the ticket when I board.  How does somebody in this kid's situation get a ticket that the airline will accept if it is bought by somebody else?

using pay pal works here

[pattayadude]

14 hours ago, bazzer said:

Can you read my post again about my remarks about no funds, you will find it a question, not a quote.

 

noted

[dddave]

On 4/8/2019 at 6:04 PM, maimeephom said:

A question on when one person buys a ticket for another person.  EVA air for example demands to see the credit card used to purchase the ticket when I board.  How does somebody in this kid's situation get a ticket that the airline will accept if it is bought by somebody else?

When I worked as an air courier, I dealt with this situation often.

The purchaser can go to any office of the airline, present positive ID and the CC used for the ticket purchase. The airline can then fax a copy to the airline office at the departure airport.  It is important that the purchaser get the name of the agent being dealt with and the name of the agent receiving the fax. I was denied boarding once because nobody could locate the fax. After that, I took names.

BTW, this situation usually only arises when the ticket is purchased by a third party within 72 hours of departure. 

[Joe Mcseismic]

Also, before deportation, immigration have to check that there are no outstanding police warrants in his name. This check can take up to a week.

[UKJASE]

here is an update guys - the OP's son / my friend was in touch this morning.  after being moved to prachuap immigration holding cells on thursday, he was finally on the road this morning, heading to the IDC in bangkok.

 

He gets his phone every now and again (about once every two days at present) and sent some messages out whilst enroute to bangkok.  he said he had been treated well in prachuap, and sounded in good spirits.

 

He has now been held about 10 or 11 days, so hopefully this is the final leg of his deportation, and he is back home very soon.

 

I have the money here for his flight and overstay fine, from his dad, so just waiting for the call as to where to send the cash

 

good on you all for helping out and showing his dad lots of support and concern ????

 

[UKJASE]

PS - he definitely wasnt arrested for any crimes.  his sole reason for arrest was overstay of his visa

[007 RED]

22 minutes ago, UKJASE said:

here is an update guys - the OP's son / my friend was in touch this morning.  after being moved to prachuap immigration holding cells on thursday, he was finally on the road this morning, heading to the IDC in bangkok.

 

He gets his phone every now and again (about once every two days at present) and sent some messages out whilst enroute to bangkok.  he said he had been treated well in prachuap, and sounded in good spirits.

 

He has now been held about 10 or 11 days, so hopefully this is the final leg of his deportation, and he is back home very soon.

 

I have the money here for his flight and overstay fine, from his dad, so just waiting for the call as to where to send the cash

 

good on you all for helping out and showing his dad lots of support and concern ????

 

Thanks for the update.... Good to hear..... hope he can get a flight back to the UK ASAP.

Edited April 14, 2019 by 007 RED

[Vacuum]

18 minutes ago, UKJASE said:

PS - he definitely wasnt arrested for any crimes.  his sole reason for arrest was overstay of his visa

Which is a crime, (four years I believe it was).

[Sheryl]

On 4/13/2019 at 1:32 AM, bazzer said:

He is being visited by friends.

 

 

 

My son has paid fine for his overstay, what is procedure now, and how long does it take, he is being held in   IDC. 

 

As his fine has been paid and (from other post) the funds are available to pay for his ticket it is now just a matter of the authorities arranging a flight with the airlines.

 

Unfortunately this is now the Thai New Year holiday, during which the country pretty much shuts down. Things will not start up again until Wednesday and then of course there will be a huge backloads. Realistically it may be another week or so  before he gets on a flight.

 

Friend should arrange to get money to him in IDC to pay for clean drinking water etc. The Embassy can help with this/advise how.

[JustAnotherHun]

Good to hear things seem to work out fine for the OP`s son. Great that the detainee has a friend to help him.

 

I don`t understand why western countries would not help their citizens in such inhuman circumstances.

Germany for example has the money to fly IS-terrorists back "home", has the money to pay the flights and additionally 1000 Euros "pocket money" for each not accepted "refugee" who is willing to leave the country.

Crazy and sad.

[sotonowl]

5 hours ago, JustAnotherHun said:

Good to hear things seem to work out fine for the OP`s son. Great that the detainee has a friend to help him.

 

I don`t understand why western countries would not help their citizens in such inhuman circumstances.

Germany for example has the money to fly IS-terrorists back "home", has the money to pay the flights and additionally 1000 Euros "pocket money" for each not accepted "refugee" who is willing to leave the country.

Crazy and sad.

I don't think he's a UK citizen.

[Tayaout]

9 hours ago, JustAnotherHun said:

Good to hear things seem to work out fine for the OP`s son. Great that the detainee has a friend to help him.

 

I don`t understand why western countries would not help their citizens in such inhuman circumstances.

Germany for example has the money to fly IS-terrorists back "home", has the money to pay the flights and additionally 1000 Euros "pocket money" for each not accepted "refugee" who is willing to leave the country.

Crazy and sad.

I think Canada does lend the money. I have a friend who had no more money and went to the embassy. They make you contact all your friends and family and lend you money if there is no other options. Once back in Canada you can't get your passport back until the loans is paid back. 

[YorkshireTyke]

5 hours ago, sotonowl said:

I don't think he's a UK citizen.

He is a UK citizen.

[bazzer]

On ‎4‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 9:50 AM, 007 RED said:

OP…. I’m sorry to hear that your son has caused you a parental heartache and I hope that I can give you some information which will help you.

 

In your original post you did not mention how your son came to be in Immigration custody.  This can be important as it will have a bearing on how his case will be handled.  There are two possibilities, namely:

 

Firstly: 

If your son was arrested or stopped by the police for an unrelated immigration offence, (for example a routine police check following an accident or something more serious) the police may well have asked to see his passport and discovered that he was on overstay, and hence immigration’s involvement.

 

If he has committed an unrelated immigration offence, then that matter will need to be dealt with first by the local police and Court.  Depending what the offence was, your son could be detained in the local police cells until an initial Court appearance which is normally within a week.  Depending upon the nature of the offence, it is possible also that he may be released on bail, but he will have to surrender his passport to the Court and stay at a specified address and report to police on a regular basis until the case is formally heard.

For your information, it can take several weeks before an offence is normally tried in Court.

 

The Court will also be informed of his overstay and that matter may also be dealt with by the Court at the same time as any other offence.

 

For your information, although the fine for overstay is set at 500 THB (approximately £12) per day, the maximum fine that can be levied is 20,000 THB (approximately £494).  The Courts, however, generally reduce the overstay fine to around 3,000 to 6,000 THB.

 

Once the offence matter has been dealt with by the Court, and your son has paid any fines (or served any prison sentence) imposed by the Court, Immigration will detain your son and transfer him to the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) in Bangkok to await deportation.  This transfer may take several days to arrange during which time he will be detained in a local police cell, or local Immigration facility.

 

Secondly:  

 

If your son was stopped by Immigration in a ‘spot check’, and they discovered that he was on four years overstay, they (Immigration) have the power to detain and deport him from the Kingdom without the need for any Court appearance.  Immigration can also charge him the maximum fine for overstay (20,000 THB) and this will need to be paid before he is deported. 

 

If he has not committed any other offences, he will be transported to the IDC in Bangkok to await deportation.  Transfer, as mentioned above, may take several days to arrange.

 

The police/immigration should notify the Consular Section of British Embassy in Bangkok that your son has been detained, where he is being held and the reason for the detention.  Unfortunately, this can often take several days to happen.  An Embassy representative will contact your son and inform him what assistance the Embassy can, or cannot, give.  See link below

 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/451352/Thailand_Prisoners_pack_template_-_Final_Draft_for_publishing.pdf

 

Not wishing to frighten you, but the Immigration Detention Centre in Bangkok is everyone’s worst nightmare.  Conditions there are about as bad as they can get.  So, getting him out of IDC must be a number one priority.

 

I would strongly recommend that you contact the Consular Section at the British Embassy in Bangkok, their contact details are given in the link I’ve attached above and listen to their advice.  They deal with similar problems on a daily basis and are in the best position to give you advice. 

 

The Embassy will not pay for his flight out of the Kingdom.  However, you can send the Embassy money which they in turn will deposit in an account for him which will be held by the IDC.  The Embassy will make a charge for this service. 

 

Your son will not be allowed any personal possessions or physical money whilst in the IDC, but he can debit his account held by IDC in order to pay for better food, drinking water, mattress or other essentials etc. which he can request the guards to obtain for him.  He will also need funds available to pay for his flight out of the Kingdom.

 

Regarding his flight, again the Embassy staff will best advise you on this matter.  Generally speaking, Immigration will want the deportee to be flow back to their home country by a single carrier, without stops, whenever possible.  This should not be a problem as there are several carriers that fly direct between Bangkok and the UK.

 

I strongly advise that you, or his friends, do not purchase a ticket for him without talking to Immigration first as Immigration need to approve the flight before a booking is confirmed so that they can arrange transport from the IDC to the airport.  This can take a couple of days to arrange. 

 

It has been reported that when family or friends have obtained a ticket without Immigration approval the individual was not transported to the airport in time to catch the flight and as a result the airline considers it to be a ‘no show’, which means no refund and having to purchase another expensive ticket.

 

You need to be aware that a single ticket from Bangkok to the UK, booked at relatively short notice e.g. a couple of days, will be expensive – single fares tend to be 2/3rd the cost of a normal return flight and the short notice booking inevitably attracts a higher premium charge.

 

Once a flight has been approved and booked, Immigration will transport your son from the IDC in Bangkok to the airport.  At the airport your son will be taken to the airport detention facility until his flight is ready to board.  His passport will be given to the flight crew and this will be returned to him when he exits the plane in the UK.

 

For your information…  Your son will be banned from entering Thailand for the next 10 years.  This may present him with a problem if he has property and bank accounts here, but that is the least of his problems for now.  Get him out of IDC ASAP.

 

I hope this information has been helpful and best of luck.

Thankyou for your useful information, my son has now be held for 22 Days since his arrest, most of this I believe is because of Thai Holidays, he has now been held I IDC in Bangkok since 14 April, he has committed no other crime other than his overstay, (he was approached by 2 plain clothed police officers whine he was out, he was pointed out by an unknown female,) he has paid fine for this, I am in regular contact with embassy, they tell me that once he has been processed ie, blood test, finger prints etc, then flight can be arranged, (funds are in place) they also tell me that my son will be visited by them this week, they will have phone with them and he will be allowed to speak to me, this has been an absolute nightmare for us, and I dread to think what he may be going through.

Edited April 24, 2019 by bazzer
typo

[geisha]

bazzer, sorry you’ve had all these problems, please don’t worry, he’ll be fine and home with you soon. He’s not the first and won’t be the last to do this, tho knowing this does not compensate for your sleepless nights. Sometimes we do very stupid things, and then have to face up to them. Kids are a worry. Even grown ones !!!

[bazzer]

24 minutes ago, bazzer said:

Thankyou for your useful information, my son has now be held for 22 Days since his arrest, most of this I believe is because of Thai Holidays, he has now been held I IDC in Bangkok since 14 April, he has committed no other crime other than his overstay, (he was approached by 2 plain clothed police officers whine he was out, he was pointed out by an unknown female,) he has paid fine for this, I am in regular contact with embassy, they tell me that once he has been processed ie, blood test, finger prints etc, then flight can be arranged, (funds are in place) they also tell me that my son will be visited by them this week, they will have phone with them and he will be allowed to speak to me, this has been an absolute nightmare for us, and I dread to think what he may be going through.

In Regards to getting him out of IDC as soon as possible, I would very much like to be able to do this, but unfortunately it is beyond my control.

 

[BritTim]

2 hours ago, bazzer said:

Thankyou for your useful information, my son has now be held for 22 Days since his arrest, most of this I believe is because of Thai Holidays, he has now been held I IDC in Bangkok since 14 April, he has committed no other crime other than his overstay, (he was approached by 2 plain clothed police officers whine he was out, he was pointed out by an unknown female,) he has paid fine for this, I am in regular contact with embassy, they tell me that once he has been processed ie, blood test, finger prints etc, then flight can be arranged, (funds are in place) they also tell me that my son will be visited by them this week, they will have phone with them and he will be allowed to speak to me, this has been an absolute nightmare for us, and I dread to think what he may be going through.

Thank you for updating us on progress. It is now a week since the Songkran holidays, and I would expect clearance to arrange flights will be given shortly. My understanding is that the process usually takes about a week. I understand how worried you must be. Hopefully, it will soon all be like a bad dream.

[bazzer]

My son has now been held in Bangkok IDC for two weeks now without a visit from Embassy.

 

[Chivas]

19 minutes ago, bazzer said:

My son has now been held in Bangkok IDC for two weeks now without a visit from Embassy.

 

Am sure it will be sorted before too long however when you get him home make sure he never leaves his home country again.

Clearly he thinks nothing of the distress hes caused to family for being 4 years overstay.

[Isaanbiker]

On 4/24/2019 at 8:10 PM, bazzer said:

Thankyou for your useful information, my son has now be held for 22 Days since his arrest, most of this I believe is because of Thai Holidays, he has now been held I IDC in Bangkok since 14 April, he has committed no other crime other than his overstay, (he was approached by 2 plain clothed police officers whine he was out, he was pointed out by an unknown female,) he has paid fine for this, I am in regular contact with embassy, they tell me that once he has been processed ie, blood test, finger prints etc, then flight can be arranged, (funds are in place) they also tell me that my son will be visited by them this week, they will have phone with them and he will be allowed to speak to me, this has been an absolute nightmare for us, and I dread to think what he may be going through.

Sorry to hear of your son's misfortune and I can only assume how you are feeling, but you shouldn't be too worried now. Let's hope that you'll have him back ASAP. It can't take much longer. Kind regards.  

[ukrules]

2 hours ago, bazzer said:

My son has now been held in Bangkok IDC for two weeks now without a visit from Embassy.

 

This is a bit shocking, what do the embassy say about this?

 

Is there anything they can do for him if they do visit him?

[bigginhill]

5 hours ago, bazzer said:

My son has now been held in Bangkok IDC for two weeks now without a visit from Embassy.

 

So they haven,t kept their promise that you posted on wednesday that they would visit this week.

I take it no one has visited him since he has been in Bangkok, or has any of his friends been to see him in Bangkok?

In your shoes I would be phoning the embassy multiple times a day. 

And if no one has gone to see him there is it possibile to pay a lawyer to go? 

[BritManToo]

8 hours ago, bazzer said:

My son has now been held in Bangkok IDC for two weeks now without a visit from Embassy.

 

Sorry to hear about your problem, if I lived in Bangkok, I would have volunteered to visit him.

[overherebc]

3 hours ago, bigginhill said:

So they haven,t kept their promise that you posted on wednesday that they would visit this week.

I take it no one has visited him since he has been in Bangkok, or has any of his friends been to see him in Bangkok?

In your shoes I would be phoning the embassy multiple times a day. 

And if no one has gone to see him there is it possibile to pay a lawyer to go? 

Do not involve lawyers.

His son has enough problems.

[JackThompson]

1 hour ago, overherebc said:

Do not involve lawyers.

His son has enough problems.

Yes, but with enough "grease" to the lawyer, some of which would have been shared with the authorities, he would have been on a flight home long ago.  The embassy really let him down, by the sound of it.

[007 RED]

On ‎4‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 8:10 PM, bazzer said:

Thankyou for your useful information, my son has now be held for 22 Days since his arrest, most of this I believe is because of Thai Holidays, he has now been held I IDC in Bangkok since 14 April, he has committed no other crime other than his overstay, (he was approached by 2 plain clothed police officers whine he was out, he was pointed out by an unknown female,) he has paid fine for this, I am in regular contact with embassy, they tell me that once he has been processed ie, blood test, finger prints etc, then flight can be arranged, (funds are in place) they also tell me that my son will be visited by them this week, they will have phone with them and he will be allowed to speak to me, this has been an absolute nightmare for us, and I dread to think what he may be going through.

As a few other TV members have said, many thanks for the update on your son’s situation.  Sorry to hear that his repatriation is taking much longer that both you, and no doubt he, were hoping for.

 

Regrading your subsequent comment that nobody from the Embassy has visited your son at IDC since his arrival two weeks ago.  I would agree that this lack of support is not very good.

 

FYI…..  IDC are supposed to notify the Embassy within 24 hours of your son’s arrival.  It is possible, for example, that if he arrived at the IDC late on a Friday afternoon they would not have officially notified the Embassy until the following Monday. 

 

It also needs to be borne in mind that there have been two holidays here, almost back-to-back.  Namely, Songkran (Thai/Buddhist New Year) followed by the Easter holiday both of which would have affected Immigration and Embassy staff to one degree or another.

 

Hopefully this week you will have some good news that his flight back to the UK has been booked and that you will soon be able to give him a clip around the lughole for causing you so much grief.

 

Please keep us updated on his progress as its always nice to know the final outcome.

 

PS.

Please also bear in mind that Civil Servants (Consular Staff) only have two speeds.  Namely, dead slow and stop.  Urgency does not exist in their vocabulary. ????

[Sheryl]

Keep calling the Embassy. And perhaps complain to the Foreign Office


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