Blatant abuse of entry denials at Phuket Airport

[NCC1701A]

too bad there is not someway to bring your plight to a larger audience.

maybe twitter #thailand

 

[When you know]

59 minutes ago, LongTang said:

 

P.S: This is the Thanks you get for raising the English level of the locals..

 

Ah, that's the rub! You (the OP) have  been demonstrably improving the level of English among the wrong (i.e. underprivileged) people and word has got out. Next time, make it easy on yourself and insist on only educating the scions of the elite.

[NightSky]

4 hours ago, dtag said:

I agree with you Khao Yai in trying fight for things , if I had a longer term plan of living here. Really this just screwed up for me how I wanted to start a much longer trip to other parts of Asia, Aus, and NZ. I was looking forward to this journey starting with visiting parts of the country I have never had time to get to. Because I actually really like Thailand and most Thai people. Losing that is worse than spending 3 days bored and annoyed. But it's ruined now.

And, based on plenty of time to converse, I know this place is now ruined for everyone else I have shared this room with. Those living here will be moving away for good , and the tourists will definitely never return, nor will their friends and family ever come here on a trip.

This hasn't been- oh just get on the next plane out. It's been being locked in a room where you rely on random visits by airline  security employee offering  to take money buy you food and water a few times a day. And having two beds for three complete strangers , etc.  

 

Living quarters , along with a small love seats,  to the side, for 2-3 grown siting together all day and sleeping at night. Go ahead and say "i must be your fault" , But you come do this for 3 days when you had a valid visa issued by an embasy

 

 

I don't claim to be perfect English teacher but I am a native English speaker and you mention that you are a fully qualified teacher although sorry mate your English is far from perfecto-mundo! Therefore I doubt your qualification as a teacher.

 

I can't see what benefit they (immigration) see for refusing a genuine tourist, this is why I believe you likely have skipped some information out maybe? You already forgot to mention the previous work in Chiang Mai and the previous passport until another member pointed that out and then you forgot which type of visa you held, what else did you skip over or miss out?

[observer90210]

This is the catastrophic result when far too much power is confined in the hands of a fool.

[balo]

2 hours ago, Dexlowe said:

The ordeal you are going through is starting to become a familiar refrain and does not augur well for future tourists.

This got nothing to do with tourists, he's been working here for 3 years, that's why IO refused him entry. 
Normal tourists staying only weeks or up to 3 months on a tourist visa before returning home got nothing to worry about. 

[balo]

29 minutes ago, NightSky said:

I can't see what benefit they (immigration) see for refusing a genuine tourist, this is why I believe you likely have skipped some information out maybe? You already forgot to mention the previous work in Chiang Mai and the previous passport until another member pointed that out and then you forgot which type of visa you held, what else did you skip over or miss out?

True, something not right with his story. 

[AlexRich]

10 minutes ago, balo said:

True, something not right with his story. 

Yes, the way he has been treated ... that's what's not right.

[nkg]

50 minutes ago, NightSky said:

 

I don't claim to be perfect English teacher but I am a native English speaker and you mention that you are a fully qualified teacher although sorry mate your English is far from perfecto-mundo! Therefore I doubt your qualification as a teacher.

 

I can't see what benefit they (immigration) see for refusing a genuine tourist, this is why I believe you likely have skipped some information out maybe? You already forgot to mention the previous work in Chiang Mai and the previous passport until another member pointed that out and then you forgot which type of visa you held, what else did you skip over or miss out?

 

I disagree, his English seems fine to me - I find it easy to believe that he is degree-educated. I see he made some spelling errors in his last paragraph, but it's late at night and he's typing on his phone in a detention cell.

 

Why are you trying to discredit him? I'm interested to hear the rest of his story.

 

 

 

 

[KhaoYai]

3 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

You are so missing my point. Also using unrelated hospital story. Fact is op was done over and I so agree so unfair. Fact is now is on his way after nightmare experience. You suggest he waste even more time fighting this in court or whatever. Best to move on. Certainly op hard done by. Let it go. 

I did not suggest he waste time by taking the matter to court. As far as I know, appeals are conducted by senior officers, not courts. I asked a question about appeals in another thread. Someone replied - I think it was Ubonjoe. The answer was that an appeal could be made but the appellant would be detained (for up to 7 days) whilst the appeal was decided.  The OP has already been detained, I was therefore suggesting it might be worth his while to appeal.

 

Having paid a lot of money for an air ticket, if I was refused entry for no good reason I would certainly appeal. I'd be prepared to be detained for 7 days but I really don't think that would be necessary.  I'd like to think that if there was nothing wrong with my entry, a more senior officer would decide against detention and allow entry.

[mstevens]

7 hours ago, dtag said:

That's the full story on my end . I'm living it right now

Sorry to hear about your experience. I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be.

 

I am curious as to whether you have a "history" in the past. Your profile states you signed up in 2007 so I guess you have a longer history with visiting / working in / living in Thailand than just the job from August last year until June of this year. I am not suggesting you have done anything wrong, rather I am trying to understand whether the officials at Phuket are looking back at entries from many years passed and taking that in to consideration now. If that is the case, it is extremely harsh. A little more info about your entire history visiting / living in Thailand might help us to understand the picture more clearly.

[mstevens]

6 hours ago, dtag said:

This hasn't been- oh just get on the next plane out. It's been being locked in a room where you rely on random visits by airline  security employee offering  to take money buy you food and water a few times a day. And having two beds for three complete strangers , etc.  

 

Living quarters , along with a small love seats,  to the side, for 2-3 grown siting together all day and sleeping at night. Go ahead and say "i must be your fault" , But you come do this for 3 days when you had a valid visa issued by an embasy

 

If this is 100% true as written (and I am not disputing that it isn't) and there is no back story that we're not aware of, then I'd be in contact with the press in both Thailand and your country. Being detained like this at an airport for a few days is a nightmare, and this is the sort of thing that really needs to make it in to the newspapers and beyond this forum. Get details of the other travellers, record their story, and send it all to the media. This story needs wider coverage. It is only fair that people flying in to Phuket be aware of what may await them.

[LongTang]

1 hour ago, balo said:

This got nothing to do with tourists, he's been working here for 3 years, that's why IO refused him entry. 
Normal tourists staying only weeks or up to 3 months on a tourist visa before returning home got nothing to worry about. 

 

What kind of logic is that?! There is no justification for that kind of treatment for anyone who has worked here legally on a proper visa.

On the contrary, if someone gave 3 years of his life teaching English legally here, then he should be welcomed and not get kicked in his face.

 

It would however be nice if for the sake of argument the OP could upload a photo of his previous visa(without personal details of course).

 

 

[Maestro]

1 hour ago, KhaoYai said:

I did not suggest he waste time by taking the matter to court. As far as I know, appeals are conducted by senior officers, not courts…

Somebody posted a link to the form TM.11 to be used for an appeal, which according to the indication on the form must be submitted to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior.

[balo]

36 minutes ago, LongTang said:

On the contrary, if someone gave 3 years of his life teaching English legally here, then he should be welcomed and not get kicked in his face.

Yes, sounds reasonably to me, under normal circumstances. But we don't know the full story since the beginning, when he first arrived.

 

Immigration officers will be very aware of anyone working in the past and now visiting as a "tourist".  

[jabis]

10 minutes ago, balo said:

Yes, sounds reasonably to me, under normal circumstances. But we don't know the full story since the beginning, when he first arrived.

 

Immigration officers will be very aware of anyone working in the past and now visiting as a "tourist".  

Actually given the immigration law, it's very common for anyone quitting/changing/laid off from work person to return with a tourist visa, as you're given 7 days to "get out of dodge". Arriving back with VoA / Visa exemption would not necessarily give enough time to re-liquidate your assets like bike/car/condo etc, so what else is there than a 60 day entry for tourism, as you're obviously no longer working? 

[Puchaiyank]

There seems to be an ever growing culture of denying entry and denying visa renewals across various specific immigration locations...this appears to be expanding...not a pretty site to behold...

[Maestro]

Sections 20–22 of the Immigration Act are relevant to an appeal against a refusal to enter Thailand. I wonder if immigration followed these procedures correctly in the case of the OP.

[lkv]

9 hours ago, dtag said:

One Australian guy detained also came in on a 60 day tourist vista he got from KL embassy. He lived in Aus and had not even visited Thailand in years. 

So he lived in Australia, not visited Thailand in years, and flew to KL especially to get a visa from the KL embassy? Why did he not get a visa from Australia?

 

Or better yet, why did he not enter visa exempt?

 

Don't believe all the stories you hear, a couple of days ago, a Liberian national was trying to convince me that he got denied entry flying into DMK from Manila, and deported with the same airline, and he was telling me that, while his rejection stamp that he posted was stating he flew Thai Air Asia from Seoul and was deported with Emirates.

[post]

11 hours ago, dtag said:

....I flew in on Tuesday with a valid tourist visa from the Thai embassy ....

Did your visa get voided after your were refused entry?

[jacko45k]

It sounds like a reason to call your Embassy and put in a complaint. Not being permitted to fly back to your home country is wrong. Surely there are more flights than every 3 or 4 days to PP (although Wed/Thur is bad for direct). 

Do you think your nationality had an impact?

[mikebell]

11 hours ago, dtag said:

tell you friends to fly  into

anywhere BUT Thailand.  They don't want us here.  Go where you're welcomed and valued.

[youreavinalaff]

11 hours ago, dtag said:

the work permit was voided while I was in PP,

There you go then. The work permit should have been cancelled the day you left employment and the extension of stay linked to that work permit should have been cancelled too. You then should have left Thailand the same day.

 

 

[Briggsy]

1 hour ago, post said:

Did your visa get voided after your were refused entry?

I am sure his visa will not have been voided. They just put a denial of entry stamp in the passport. It takes up half a page. The visa can be used at a land border. That's what I did anyway.

[Briggsy]

56 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

Surely there are more flights than every 3 or 4 days to PP (although Wed/Thur is bad for direct). 

It has to be the same airline if possible. The airline must agree and Immigration must agree and the denied foreigner has to pay for it. This is what causes the delay. If you say, I want to buy the next Air Asia flight to KL, Immigration will say you can't.

[jacko45k]

7 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

It has to be the same airline if possible.

I suspect there is only one airline, Air Asia. These people who are denied entry are treated very badly and often made to sign a document confessing to their 'crimes' and agreeing to pay for the privelidge! Their crimes often include arriving with a valid visa. 

[ChipButty]

10 hours ago, dtag said:

I agree with you Khao Yai in trying fight for things , if I had a longer term plan of living here. Really this just screwed up for me how I wanted to start a much longer trip to other parts of Asia, Aus, and NZ. I was looking forward to this journey starting with visiting parts of the country I have never had time to get to. Because I actually really like Thailand and most Thai people. Losing that is worse than spending 3 days bored and annoyed. But it's ruined now.

And, based on plenty of time to converse, I know this place is now ruined for everyone else I have shared this room with. Those living here will be moving away for good , and the tourists will definitely never return, nor will their friends and family ever come here on a trip.

This hasn't been- oh just get on the next plane out. It's been being locked in a room where you rely on random visits by airline  security employee offering  to take money buy you food and water a few times a day. And having two beds for three complete strangers , etc.  

 

Living quarters , along with a small love seats,  to the side, for 2-3 grown siting together all day and sleeping at night. Go ahead and say "i must be your fault" , But you come do this for 3 days when you had a valid visa issued by an embasy

Ive seen that place on Airbnb

[Briggsy]

2 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

I suspect there is only one airline, Air Asia. These people who are denied entry are treated very badly and often made to sign a document confessing to their 'crimes' and agreeing to pay for the privelidge! Their crimes often include arriving with a valid visa. 

I know. I am one who was denied with a valid visa. I politely refused to sign the document. The instant reply from the IO to the airline liaison was, "Deal with the farang first." I was out of there quickly and on a flight. Unfortunately it cost me a fortune with all the extra expenditure.

[brewsterbudgen]

 
I don't claim to be perfect English teacher but I am a native English speaker and you mention that you are a fully qualified teacher although sorry mate your English is far from perfecto-mundo! Therefore I doubt your qualification as a teacher.
 
I can't see what benefit they (immigration) see for refusing a genuine tourist, this is why I believe you likely have skipped some information out maybe? You already forgot to mention the previous work in Chiang Mai and the previous passport until another member pointed that out and then you forgot which type of visa you held, what else did you skip over or miss out?

He did say he wasn't an ESL teacher, so I expect he was qualified to teach other subjects and not trained in teaching ESL/EFL.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Lenny Jones]

11 hours ago, Caldera said:

That's what happens when a country puts muppets with zero qualifications for the job but huge egos in charge and brainwashes its population to believe in nonsense. A sad state of affairs, really.

 

OP, thanks for sharing, you have my sympathy.

Unfortunately Thai Immigration laws are loose and open to interpretation.  To get around this all local immigration offices are given scope to apply their own interpretations.

 

This shows up clearly in the many anecdotal statements by various contributors around the country and if you couple to this partial autonomy the various levels of corruption that exists in different local department is leaves us with one unholy mess to deal with.

 

I have fortunately developed a good relationship with my local immigration boss where we both enjoy a mutual level of respect.  Many are already aware that each time we do a 1-year renewal the rules change.  I simply tell my local immigration boss she is exactly that and what does she want me to do?  She understands I am trying to do it correctly and is always very helpful,

 

So fare everything has worked out well - - - For me - - - -

[dbrenn]

It seems that Thailand is only interested in short stay package tourists these days. Anyone on a tourist visa who doesn't fit that profile is taking a chance.