Two western tourists to be deported for catching protected marine species

 

 

Two western tourists, who took a selfie of themselves holding one of Thailand’s species of protected marine wildlife while scuba diving, are to be deported after their tourist visas were revoked.

 

The pair were identified as Attila Ott, a Hungarian national, and Francesco Simonetti, an Italian citizen.  Mr. Ott is a diving instructor who also owns a restaurant and a scuba club on Pha-ngan Island, in Thailand’s southern province of Surat Thani,while Mr. Simonetti is a chef at the Barracuda restaurant and owner of a speed boat, also on Pha-ngan Island.

 

According to the Thai immigration police, the two men are considered to be a “social threat”, because they used a selfie stick to poke protected species, in the seas off Pha-ngan Island,and then caught them for a photo shot, which was posted on social media for publicity purposes.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/two-western-tourists-to-be-deported-for-catching-protected-marine-species/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2020-09-04

 

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'tourist visas revoked ' and one owns a restaurant and the other had a job? .uh sums up what goes on !

1 hour ago, pixelaoffy said:

'tourist visas revoked ' and one owns a restaurant and the other had a job? .uh sums up what goes on !

You can't rely on the reporting to state their actual VISA status.

But deportation, totally over the top for a 'crime' many tourists and tour guides do every day.

 

Look mom, I found a sea cucumber!

Look mom, I found a starfish!

........ Out you go .........

You have to be careful. Don't even feed fish! 

 

 

Meanwhile , in Bangkok you can still eat at a sharks fin soup restaurant.

 

Totally over the top from the authorities.

widely abundand crabs, crinoids, sea stars and sea cucumbers are protected????‍♂️

fresh Zebra sharks hanging on a hook at sea markets - mai pin rai ????

Nothing to get excited about. Just another aspect of Thai culture. Unfortunately that aspect is becoming all too well known around the world. TAT is hoping for long term tourists from Euro land to kick start the tourist engine?!

 

More problems with that idea than just the Wuhan Virus.  ????

11 minutes ago, fdsa said:

widely abundand crabs, crinoids, sea stars and sea cucumbers are protected????‍♂️

fresh Zebra sharks hanging on a hook at sea markets - mai pin rai ????

If protected species, could you not report it?

Severe consequences for the two guys , will probably lose all their assets in Thailand as well as any Family they may have , will these guys get blacklisted ?

41 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

You can't rely on the reporting to state their actual VISA status.

But deportation, totally over the top for a 'crime' many tourists and tour guides do every day.

 

Look mom, I found a sea cucumber!

Look mom, I found a starfish!

........ Out you go .........

Seems obvious that the speedboat owner who liked to take scuba divers out was really running an illegal dive operation.

Slam dunked!

41 minutes ago, Oldie said:

You have to be careful. Don't even feed fish! 

 

 

Italian lad would feel right at home. You get fined for feeding pigeons in Venice...

4 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

Italian lad would feel right at home. You get fined for feeding pigeons in Venice...

This makes sense since endless tourist gave them food so that they could take photos with many pigeons sitting on them. But there are still plenty of tourists that don't care or perhaps don't know. And all these well fed pigeons with their offsprings cause a lot of damage to buildings. 

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

You can't rely on the reporting to state their actual VISA status.

But deportation, totally over the top for a 'crime' many tourists and tour guides do every day.

You can't rely on the reporting necessarily being inaccurate either.

 

Deportation, as a result of tourist visas being revoked for working illegally, isn't over the top, it's normal.

 

"...a 'crime' many tourists and tour guides do every day".

I would imagine that a very small percentage of tourists work or open their own businesses on their tourist visas.

It seems totally over the top from Thai authorities,those creatures

are not protected species,were not harmed,Thai fishermen will bring

them up as  bycatches everyday,and just throw them back.

 

remember "Thai marine life matters ",   anybody looking for a 

cheap speed boat.get in touch with the Italian.

regards worgeordie

1 hour ago, trucking said:

Meanwhile , in Bangkok you can still eat at a sharks fin soup restaurant.

 

Totally over the top from the authorities.

Since when have sharks fin soup restaurants been illegal?  Working on tourist visas sure is.

1 hour ago, fdsa said:

widely abundand crabs, crinoids, sea stars and sea cucumbers are protected????‍♂️

fresh Zebra sharks hanging on a hook at sea markets - mai pin rai ????

Zebra sharks are not protected so their sale at markets is not illegal.

" a “social threat”," ????

What these guys did was stupid & wrong, but if the crime fits the punishment, then RB Boss and the other guy who killed students while speeding and on meth should be executed, revived, and executed again.

38 minutes ago, CorpusChristie said:

Severe consequences for the two guys , will probably lose all their assets in Thailand as well as any Family they may have , will these guys get blacklisted ?

Will they think about how unbelievably stupid they were to risk losing all their assets in Thailand by working, opening businesses and then to displaying it all on social media while on tourist visas?

The outrage, hypocrisy and sanctimony over an environment and resource Thailand does very little to protect when we see the amount of rubbish washing out to sea from the rivers and what gets washed up on the beaches. 

 

An environmentalist (Professor) hit the roof and publicised a very minor issue, a wolf whistle to xenophobes looking to fein outrage, but ultimately these two broke nothing more than a ‘diving code of conduct’ - don’t touch, thats it, yet we have doped up tigers, elephants in slavery, massive illegal wildlife trading going on....  the hypocrisy is outrageous. 

 

 

 

I suspect that no charges could be placed on the two divers and thus the only option was to go the ‘work permit’ route and deport them for working illegally - Face saved for the Police !

 

 

Fend off a potentially rabbed dog in the street, prod an invertebrate, beat a farang half to death over nothing. Sometimes the punishment does not seem to fit the crime but if you want post every stupid thing to social media ensure your work permit is in order, and you have a GOOD lawyer on speed dial. ByeBye

1 hour ago, CorpusChristie said:

Severe consequences for the two guys , will probably lose all their assets in Thailand as well as any Family they may have , will these guys get blacklisted ?

... and that's exactly why they have been deported. Some Thai's will profit quite well out of this.

These two vandals intentionally trespassed into a protected wildlife zone and tormented the wildlife, including turtle feeding areas, poking them with sticks.  The dive worker sabotaged the hard work that other foreign dive operators  have invested. Getting rid of this buffoon will protect the dive companies who operate ethically and legally.  The Italian fry cook can find a job on the waterfront in Naples where is morals are better suited.

 

The authorities investigated these two people and discovered a number of immigration violations.  According to the TVF crusaders, these violations are acceptable.  The two are being asked to leave because of their immigration issues. They are getting off lightly.

 

It is incredible that  some foreigners have the arrogance to criticize Thailand for having a law that western countries urged Thailand to enact.  The Thais do the right thing,

 

Western governments congratulated Thailand when it  introduced the new wildlife protection law.  Here's a reminder of what the USA  had to say;

 

USAID Facilitates Groundbreaking Changes to Thailand’s National Wildlife Law:  In November 2019, the new Wildlife Conservation and Protection Act B.E. 2562 (2019) (WARPA) took effect in Thailand, enhancing the protection levels of endangered species and dramatically increasing the penalties in most cases. Thailand now has some of the severest penalties for illegal wildlife trafficking offences in the region, which can hopefully serve as effective deterrents for wildlife crimes.

 

In respect to sea creatures, to correct the factually incorrect statements made in the thread, the following  marine wildlife are protected  under the highest classification of "Reserved".   Dugong; Whale shark; Bryde's whale; Omura's whale; Leatherback turtle 

 

3 minutes ago, geriatrickid said:

The authorities investigated these two people and discovered a number of immigration violations

What were their immigration violations ?

14 minutes ago, Phuketshrew said:

... and that's exactly why they have been deported. Some Thai's will profit quite well out of this.

Suggest you have a look at the  BBQ restaurant and the dive shop.  IMO, nothing of value. In any case, each has the convenience of a Thai spouse/domestic partners, so  assets won't be lost right away.

5 minutes ago, Pottinger said:

Sometimes you have to just marvel at the monumental stupidity of Thai officialdom. 

or the stupidity of foreigners who believe that they need not comply with the immigration laws, nor respect  the rules in a protected wildlife reserve. 

 

 

1 minute ago, geriatrickid said:

or the stupidity of foreigners who believe that they need not comply with the immigration laws, nor respect  the rules in a protected wildlife reserve. these people were nicked for immigration violations discovered after they posted their idiotic video which was investigated.

....and keyboard warriors who take it upon themselves to justify the laws of countries not their own.

11 minutes ago, CorpusChristie said:

What were their immigration violations ?

It' s all over the  news reports;

-Simonetti did not report his change in residence.

-Otts' wife was providing lodging for a  foreigner but had not reported her activity. Whether she was reporting her activity as a lodging facility was not pursued. Also not addressed is what the foreigner was doing with Ott. 

My takeaway is that the  immigration authorities saw enough smoke that they did not need to wait for the fire to act.

 

 

4 minutes ago, Pottinger said:

....and keyboard warriors who take it upon themselves to justify the laws of countries not their own.

What part of respecting the local laws do you object to?  If you cannot be a law abiding foreigner in thailand why enter Thailand?

You know darn well that these two people are of questionable position.

No one will miss the BBQ shop and the  disappearance of a dive operator who  cannot follow the code that the other responsible dive operators follow  is no loss either. Most of the dive shop people try very hard to be good responsible operations. Along comes  this guy and  destroys their reputations.

 

Yet another TVF thread goes off on a tangent with members bitching at each other. ????????????

 

In summary, these guys were foolish enough to do what they did, and although all the headlines will be that they were deported for touching a sea cucumber (which apparently isn't endangered, and who knows if they were actually in the marine park or not at the time), when in fact their foolishness led immigration to look further into their lives.

Being deported for what they did on that dive would be an injustice, but if immigration had seen what they saw and not acted accordingly, there would be people bitching about that. You can't win.