Dutch Woman Arrested at Phuket Airport for Entering and Staying in Thailand Without Proper Documents

[richard_smith237]

Just now, ThailandRyan said:

Must have been picked up by the Police VIP folks and van from the airplane itself, then escorted to her place of holiday like the Chinese gal did as well as many others.....this time somene forgot to stamp the passport......

Surely there would be some record of that, with either the authorities or with her. 

 

IF she had entered through legitimate means surely she would have spoken up about that.

Perhaps the article misses this ?... either deliberately to dramatise, or through incompetence. 

 

Thus, I would guess, that as ‘no one knows’ how she entered, she entered illegally and is keeping quiet about it. 

 

Its something we’ll never know - As with nearly every stories and report on here, we are left speculating (out of general interest and discussion) and there is never any follow up.

 

 

 

 

[NanLaew]

I recall reading a previous story or two about how some arriving international passengers somehow managed to take the wrong route off the end of an escalator and inadvertently bypassed immigration at the abomination of an airport that is called HKT. Maybe this was the same unfortunate mistake this person committed but to make those oxygen thieves in uniform sound all super sleuth and efficient, this story is made up to look like it was the passenger being nefarious?

 

I'll admit the last time I transitted through there was over 12 years ago but it was a bit of a shambles both international arrivals around mid day and departures around midnight. The immigration staff's brusque and surly demeanor easily outdid the most cantankerous passport stamper at DMK.

[richard_smith237]

8 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

I recall reading a previous story or two about how some arriving international passengers somehow managed to take the wrong route off the end of an escalator and inadvertently bypassed immigration

I would hope that they had checked with the Dutch Lady and ensured this was not the case before attempting to bathe themselves in glory and parading her off to the gallows. 

 

 

 

 

 

[NanLaew]

50 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

I would hope that they had checked with the Dutch Lady and ensured this was not the case before attempting to bathe themselves in glory and parading her off to the gallows.

 

Even if she was only guilty of unknowingly breaching a weakness on inbound immigration cat-herding, there's not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening.

 

Not at HKT anyway.

[mikeymike100]

2 hours ago, Old Croc said:

I made comment in another thread about why I think they do it. Unsure why you pose this question at me as I didn't make mention of it in my post here.

 

Quite so, it was a question not really aimed at you personally!

[freedomnow]

Any photo op. now to show they are more serious about over-stays...getting the word out through free press.

 

Let's see how it rolls with the ruskies, and if they start to overstay in large numbers..the'd be stupid to, best to move on to another country vs getting deported back to the cannon fodder front lines.

[Burma Bill]

11 hours ago, hotchilli said:

I wonder how she entered Phuket to start with, possibly via road from another province

With assistance from an agent at porous land borders with Laos, Cambodia or Malaysia and maybe Burma??

[Old Croc]

4 hours ago, NanLaew said:

I recall reading a previous story or two about how some arriving international passengers somehow managed to take the wrong route off the end of an escalator and inadvertently bypassed immigration at the abomination of an airport that is called HKT. Maybe this was the same unfortunate mistake this person committed but to make those oxygen thieves in uniform sound all super sleuth and efficient, this story is made up to look like it was the passenger being nefarious?

 

I'll admit the last time I transitted through there was over 12 years ago but it was a bit of a shambles both international arrivals around mid day and departures around midnight. The immigration staff's brusque and surly demeanor easily outdid the most cantankerous passport stamper at DMK.

If you really have to diss something, you will look a lot more believable and less foolish if you were up to date on the subject.  That crappy old airport, and probably most of the staff who annoyed you a dozen years ago, are long gone. It's been massively upgraded over the last 10 years to a point where it is capable of handling 15m pax in a year (before covid), second only to Bangkok.

Phuket International Airport - Wikipedia

[billd766]

13 hours ago, Lemsta69 said:

Dutch passport holders don't need a visa to enter the Kingdom. 

Well I have just done an internet search and come up with this link

.

 

https://hague.thaiembassy.org/th/publicservice/e-visa-categories-fee-and-required-documents

 

E-visa Categories and Required Documents

 

Dutch passport holders can visit Thailand for up to 30 days without a visa under a Tourist Visa Exemption scheme.
For an explanation about permitted period of stay and visa validity, please see: https://hague.thaiembassy.org/th/page/42922-general-information
The embassy may request applicants to submit additional documents and proof as deemed necessary. 

 

CATEGORY 1 : Tourism and recreation related visit

 

VISA TYPE: Tourist Visa (60 days stay)
FEE: 
35 EUR for single entry (3 months validity)
175 EUR for multiple entries (6 months validity with maximum stay of 60 days.

 

There is more information in the link.

 

IMO somebody at the Thai Immigration has made a spherical up and not stamped her in correctly. They are saying that it must be her fault which is why they arrested her, even though the fault must be due to Immigration not doing their job properly.

 

Instead of arresting her all they had to do was their job, but properly, and stamp her in.

 

Now this will hit the social media in europe.

[billd766]

13 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

She was arrested at the Immigration Checkpoint in the International Departure Terminal at the Phuket International Airport.

 

I mean seriously, what was the point ? Unless she was taking a friend to the airport, it appears she was leaving the country from the story and would be gone. Just seems to be revenge to me.

 

 

More like stupidity to me, and the fault of the Immigration Police.

[Old Croc]

Here is my theory, just for amusement, probably for my critics, and I am also risking being compared to a fictional detective from a TV show made 50 years ago,

[Theory Only]

The lady is not a Euro citizen. She entered some time ago from an unknown country with little protections for individuals. She worked (!) and overstayed (speculation), before coming into possession of a Dutch passport (illegally) and was attempting to use it to depart Thailand and enter the Euro zone where she could apply for refugee status.

I don't think the modern and cyber equipped Immigration Dept of today would be mistakenly locking up legal tourists from Europe.

 

Just a theory, and if wrong feel free to mock.

[hotchilli]

10 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

With assistance from an agent at porous land borders with Laos, Cambodia or Malaysia and maybe Burma??

My thoughts too, unless her inbound flight was not processed properly and it was only found out as she was about to leave, in which case why arrest her, let her go ?

[berrec]

What, no PowerPoint presentation behind her! 555

 

C'mon man!

 

You know the thing!

 

Really, that's the best press story they can come up with.

 

Just a deflection from all the current BIB corruption stories doing the rounds.

 

A good fell story for the BIB's.

 

 

 

[Robbkk]

On 3/28/2023 at 6:04 AM, smedly said:

why is this even news, pay 20k and let her leave, stupid nonsense 

Exactly. Why call the press and shame the girl in front of the cameras for a missing stamp? Are they trying to scare away European girls?

 

 

[Old Croc]

1 hour ago, Robbkk said:

Exactly. Why call the press and shame the girl in front of the cameras for a missing stamp? Are they trying to scare away European girls?

 

 

Come on!

Why would they arrest a Euro Citz on departure for a missing arrival stamp in this day and age?

There' more to it than that.

[ChaiyaTH]

I seen this a few times now but the cause for it was often unclear. I do know that during my 2 recent trips to Malaysia over land, you can walk into Thailand, or into Malaysia, so easily at multiple points, without passing by the immigration.

 

You could do that intentional, but if you are with 3 minivan 12 ppl each tour thing, it could happen that you think to be done already after you first 'checked out TH', then checked in + out malay and back inside the van. It confused a few tourist on my minivan too. Normally driver checks this.

 

Another strange thing with one of the guys I see this happen with, was that he actually did have the stamp, he just didn't exist in the database somehow....

Edited March 29, 2023 by ChaiyaTH

[ChaiyaTH]

15 hours ago, billd766 said:

Well I have just done an internet search and come up with this link

.

 

https://hague.thaiembassy.org/th/publicservice/e-visa-categories-fee-and-required-documents

 

E-visa Categories and Required Documents

 

Dutch passport holders can visit Thailand for up to 30 days without a visa under a Tourist Visa Exemption scheme.
For an explanation about permitted period of stay and visa validity, please see: https://hague.thaiembassy.org/th/page/42922-general-information
The embassy may request applicants to submit additional documents and proof as deemed necessary. 

 

CATEGORY 1 : Tourism and recreation related visit

 

VISA TYPE: Tourist Visa (60 days stay)
FEE: 
35 EUR for single entry (3 months validity)
175 EUR for multiple entries (6 months validity with maximum stay of 60 days.

 

There is more information in the link.

 

IMO somebody at the Thai Immigration has made a spherical up and not stamped her in correctly. They are saying that it must be her fault which is why they arrested her, even though the fault must be due to Immigration not doing their job properly.

 

Instead of arresting her all they had to do was their job, but properly, and stamp her in.

 

Now this will hit the social media in europe.

Most websites as usual are always outdated, often even wrong. Or just that a specific embassy or consulate has different rules. Anyway, Dutch passports are one of the best, 45 day on arrival.

 

But hey, what do we even know, she is not 18 but 28, maybe she actually worked on the party islands for 2 years already and did do a dodgy runs / extensions to stay longer + now got trouble she created herself. Many weird things happen down south lol.

Edited March 29, 2023 by ChaiyaTH

[richard_smith237]

16 hours ago, Old Croc said:

Here is my theory, just for amusement, probably for my critics, and I am also risking being compared to a fictional detective from a TV show made 50 years ago,

[Theory Only]

The lady is not a Euro citizen. She entered some time ago from an unknown country with little protections for individuals. She worked (!) and overstayed (speculation), before coming into possession of a Dutch passport (illegally) and was attempting to use it to depart Thailand and enter the Euro zone where she could apply for refugee status.

I don't think the modern and cyber equipped Immigration Dept of today would be mistakenly locking up legal tourists from Europe.

 

Just a theory, and if wrong feel free to mock.

No mocking...  this is a discussion forum and throwing out theories, suspicious, interpretations etc exactly what forums such as this are for... If we are not permitted theories and discussions - we’d simply be reading the news.

 

I think this is a decent theory and I’d agree, quite a possibility.