Thousands of Russians and Ukrainians stranded in Thailand, including Phuket

[snoop1130]

 

While many Russians have been investing in villas and homes in Thailand, there are also thousands of Russians and Ukrainians who are stranded in the country due to the ongoing war following the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine.

 

Around 7,000 Russians and Ukrainians are currently stranded in Thailand, with many of them currently in Phuket. The island used to attract 8 – 9 million overseas visitors in the years up to 2019, but the pandemic has caused a significant drop in tourism.

 

While the island is welcoming back tourism, the situation with stranded Russian and Ukrainian tourists looms in the background with a constant 3 – 4,000 new Russian arrivals each day since last November. Most are tourists but many are looking at Thailand as either a medium or long term stay and have taken up the slack in the rental market and buying the available condo stock.

 

Full Story: https://phuket-go.com/phuket-news/phuket-news/thousands-of-russians-and-ukrainians-stranded-in-thailand-including-phuket/

 

-- © Copyright Phuket GO 2023-03-29

 

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[proton]

Not stranded, they can go home tomorrow

[JoseThailand]

2 minutes ago, proton said:

Not stranded, they can go home tomorrow

For the Ukrainians, there is no home

[Letseng]

1 minute ago, JoseThailand said:

For the Ukrainians, there is no home

For most there isn't. How do they survive in Thailand? In other countries they get refugee status & needed support, can work & start a new life. 

[connda]

Quote

Around 7,000 Russians and Ukrainians are currently stranded in Thailand, with many of them currently in Phuket. The island used to attract 8 – 9 million overseas visitors in the years up to 2019, but the pandemic has caused a significant drop in tourism.

To the best of my knowledge Thailand doesn't extend asylum to visitors 'stranded' by political or social upheaval in their home countries. 

Stand by for Slavic Overstay stories.

[proton]

49 minutes ago, JoseThailand said:

For the Ukrainians, there is no home

Nonsense

[JoseThailand]

49 minutes ago, Letseng said:

For most there isn't. How do they survive in Thailand? In other countries they get refugee status & needed support, can work & start a new life. 

To be honest, there are not that many Ukrainians in Thailand at the moment. There are mostly Russians. The Ukrainians prefer taking refuge in Europe.

[swissie]

36 minutes ago, connda said:

To the best of my knowledge Thailand doesn't extend asylum to visitors 'stranded' by political or social upheaval in their home countries. 

Stand by for Slavic Overstay stories.

Yep. Soon Thai Immigration will have to deal with a lot of "overstayers". "Refugees" = First class overstayers (can stay), or Second Class overstayers (get the h*ll out of here).

[phetphet]

So these planes are flying in, bring lots of their compatriots every day, then cancelling the returns?

There must be a lot of planes parked up in Phuket.

[JoseThailand]

2 minutes ago, swissie said:

Yep. Soon Thai Immigration will have to deal with a lot of "overstayers". "Refugees" = First class overstayers (can stay), or Second Class overstayers (get the h*ll out of here).

If you don't have 3000 baht for a monthly border hop, they you should really be kicked out.

[swinginglow]

It's going to be a problem for Thailand going forward. Do they deport or give special dispensation to Russians hiding from putins war.

[steven100]

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

stranded in the country due to the ongoing war following the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine.

stranded ?  ..... they are draft dodgers

[billd766]

1 hour ago, proton said:

Not stranded, they can go home tomorrow

But go home to what?

[swissie]

7 minutes ago, JoseThailand said:

To be honest, there are not that many Ukrainians in Thailand at the moment. There are mostly Russians. The Ukrainians prefer taking refuge in Europe.

Russians not welcome in Europe.

 

 Ukranians can receive "wellfare-benefits" in Europe. Russians in Thailand have to "self-finance" themselves. For how long can they "self-finance" themselves? Once their financial reserves are exhausted, how are they going to support temselves in Thailand?

 

a) falling back on the non existent "Thai Social Security Network" or b) engage in criminal activities as the only remaining option? Likely.

[JoseThailand]

10 minutes ago, swissie said:

Ukranians can receive "wellfare-benefits" in Europe. Russians in Thailand have to "self-finance" themselves. For how long can they "self-finance" themselves? Once their financial reserves are exhausted, how are they going to support temselves in Thailand?

A lot of them work online for their current Russian employers. Since the pandemic, online work has become the norm. The cost of living in Thailand is lower than in Russia, even including visa expenses. So most of them can stay in Thailand indefinitely without any issues.

Edited March 29, 2023 by JoseThailand

[anterian]

I thought a major problem is the inability to transfer funds as Swift, Visa, Mastercard etc are all blocked by sanctions. 

[anterian]

7 minutes ago, JoseThailand said:

A lot of them work online for their current Russian employers. Since the pandemic, online work has become the norm. The cost of living in Thailand is lower than in Russia, even including visa expenses. So most of them can stay in Thailand indefinitely without any issues.

So how are they paid?

[JoseThailand]

12 minutes ago, anterian said:

I thought a major problem is the inability to transfer funds as Swift, Visa, Mastercard etc are all blocked by sanctions. 

Have you heard of crypto? Plus there are online p2p services directly exchanging Russian rubles to Thai baht. It's really not an issue.

[Sharp]

The houses and WINDOWS are bomb proof theres no problem going home 

[SpaceKadet]

Slightly off topic, but just recently read an article about Bali locals being very fed up with the hordes of visiting (and staying) Russians and Ukrainians. To the point that they wanted to stop issuing visa on arrival for those nationalities. They described their behavior as barbaric and uncivilized.

The article said that the numbers of Russians and Ukrainians coming to the island was three times that of Australians, previously being most numerous.

[LaosLover]

Previous thread here have described Jomtien as so crowed with Russians that they are practically standing on top of each other. I read here that 10,000 were arriving weekly in Pattaya alone. 

 

Now I learn that a mere 7,000 are overstaying across the entire country -out of 3-4,000 arriving weekly since November -including Ukranians.

 

Can anyone explain the disconnect? Because after all the concern, 7,000 sounds like a rounding error.

[steven100]

46 minutes ago, swissie said:

Russians not welcome in Europe

Good .....   only welcome in  idiotland  sorry ,  I mean Thailand

[steven100]

2 minutes ago, LaosLover said:

Previous thread here have described Jomtien as so crowed with Russians that they are practically standing on top of each other. I read here that 10,000 were arriving weekly in Pattaya alone. 

 

Now I learn that a mere 7,000 are overstaying across the entire country -out of 3-4,000 arriving weekly since November -including Ukranians.

 

Can anyone explain the disconnect? Because after all the concern, 7,000 sounds like a rounding error.

I can explain  ...........       $$$

[LaosLover]

I keep hearing that they are buying/renting every last condo in the nation -all 7,000 of them.

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

stranded ?  ..... they are draft dodgers

As if that's a bad thing.

[swissie]

1 hour ago, JoseThailand said:

A lot of them work online for their current Russian employers. Since the pandemic, online work has become the norm. The cost of living in Thailand is lower than in Russia, even including visa expenses. So most of them can stay in Thailand indefinitely without any issues.

Having been cut off from international trade, "online " work must have been reduced to "domestic-russian" commerce. Involving a "shinkage" of online work.

- Given the fact that 50% of russian refugees can pay their way by "online-work" (optimistic assumption), how will the other 50% or russians earn their living in Thailand?

 

PS: Granted, there are some "computer wizards" originating from russia. Not advancing computing capabilities for the benefit of the world, but rather focusing on the Art of "hacking".

- Not sure if the stern Thai Government would welome a bunch of talented "hackers", especially not if they expand their "hacking" activities to (Thai) domestic issues.

 

[billd766]

1 hour ago, JoseThailand said:

Have you heard of crypto? Plus there are online p2p services directly exchanging Russian rubles to Thai baht. It's really not an issue.

Do you have a link for those services?

 

Purely curiousity.

Edited March 29, 2023 by billd766
added extra text

[steven100]

1 hour ago, anterian said:

So how are they paid?

are you really so naive ?  don't you understand the banking network?  they can work around the sanctions, not everyone is paid by swift,

[ThailandRyan]

3 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

stranded in the country due to the ongoing war following the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine.

Stranded, but I thought the Russians had been all classed as refugee's while the Ukrainian folks were escaping getting bombed. Just make up some camps like they have the Myanmar folks living in along the border.......Russian refugee camps.

Edited March 29, 2023 by ThailandRyan

[biervoormij]

Reports always report arrivals numbers but never post exit numbers. Are the airplanes flying back to Russia empty?

 

Are some of the Russian arrival numbers the same people counted over and over again as they do visa runs?