Thousands of Russians and Ukrainians stranded in Thailand, including Phuket

[Accidental Tourist]

They came here freely, and able to go home anytime...so why they are "stranded"?

 

[h90]

On 3/29/2023 at 6:49 PM, 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.

a big amount of Ukrainians are also in Turkey and Russia (the Ukrainians of Russian heritage, or these with Russian Orthodox religion)

[Bkk Brian]

2 minutes ago, h90 said:

a big amount of Ukrainians are also in Turkey and Russia (the Ukrainians of Russian heritage, or these with Russian Orthodox religion)

Yea over 6,000 Ukrainian children abducted, taken from their parents and now in Russia to.

[Jingthing]

They're not LITERALLY stranded in Thailand of course.

SOME of them really can't go back to Russia if they want to avoid being conscripted, jailed, or murdered.

Yes many Russians who really shouldn't be going back do run out of money / visa options and do go back.

Over time there will be more of those unfortunates.

Many can avoid going back for a long time or even indefinitely with visa options they might be able to afford, moving along from one country to the next mixed with maximum visa runs, merit based immigration if highly skilled, or seeking asylum in a western country if they have a strong case. 

Every Russian has their own story. 

[Jingthing]

Forever war. The new Putin paradigm.

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 3/29/2023 at 11:43 PM, snoop1130 said:

While the island is welcoming back tourism, the situation with stranded Russian and Ukrainian tourists looms in the background

How can it be Ukrainians if all Ukrainian men are forbidden to leave Ukraine?

Some thing has not been reported correctly.

Unless it's just Ukrainian women.

[h90]

3 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

Yea over 6,000 Ukrainian children abducted, taken from their parents and now in Russia to.

That is another story.....But Ukraine is not friendly to people who they think might have collaborated with Russia (and what choice did they have). When the Ukraine made their offensive they went all to Russia.....The situation is not as simply as Russia bad, Ukraine good....

[h90]

4 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

How can it be Ukrainians if all Ukrainian men are forbidden to leave Ukraine?

Some thing has not been reported correctly.

Unless it's just Ukrainian women.

Some left before......and some did not ask for permission and went to Poland and when Poland started to cooperate with Ukraine they flee further.
I read a report that in Turkey there are Russian and Ukraine tourists side by side. I don't know how they manage that.

[thaibeachlovers]

2 minutes ago, h90 said:

Some left before......and some did not ask for permission and went to Poland and when Poland started to cooperate with Ukraine they flee further.
I read a report that in Turkey there are Russian and Ukraine tourists side by side. I don't know how they manage that.

According to what I saw on Al Jazeera, Ukrainian men were not allowed to cross the Polish border.

If it is men that left before they must have been in LOS a long time.

Perhaps Al Jazeera got it wrong.

[Bkk Brian]

13 minutes ago, h90 said:

That is another story.....But Ukraine is not friendly to people who they think might have collaborated with Russia (and what choice did they have). When the Ukraine made their offensive they went all to Russia.....The situation is not as simply as Russia bad, Ukraine good....

Its a story waiting to be told in the Hague International war crimes court after the prosecutors there have charged Putin

Edited March 31, 2023 by Bkk Brian

[h90]

3 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Its a story waiting to be told in the Hague International war crimes court after the prosecutors there have charged Putin

both Putin and Selinsky will charged in the Hague shortly after they are finished with Bush, Obama and Trump.....so never

[Bkk Brian]

1 minute ago, h90 said:

both Putin and Selinsky will charged in the Hague shortly after they are finished with Bush, Obama and Trump.....so never

Sorry. The arrest warrant is only for Putin not the others

[h90]

12 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

According to what I saw on Al Jazeera, Ukrainian men were not allowed to cross the Polish border.

If it is men that left before they must have been in LOS a long time.

Perhaps Al Jazeera got it wrong.

I also saw that, but I think they just walked over the border it is a very long border

[h90]

1 minute ago, Bkk Brian said:

Sorry. The arrest warrant is only for Putin not the others

And simply nothing will happen, they can only arrest looser and the war will end in some kind of compromise. For sure not in a complete defeat of Russia. So the arrest warrant is just symbolic

[Bkk Brian]

Just now, h90 said:

And simply nothing will happen, they can only arrest looser and the war will end in some kind of compromise. For sure not in a complete defeat of Russia. So the arrest warrant is just symbolic

Indeed the compromise always involves a losing side and the arrest warrant is far more than symbolic.

[scottiejohn]

56 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Perhaps Al Jazeera got it wrong.

They normally are wrong from a western perspective!

Why anyone watches that state sponsored cr@p is beyond me! 

[ThailandRyan]

1 minute ago, scottiejohn said:

They normally are wrong from a western perspective!

Why anyone watches that state sponsored cr@p is beyond me! 

State sponsored by who? Oh right owned by Qatar, and they must have an agenda in your view.

 

https://network.aljazeera.net/en/about-us

Edited March 31, 2023 by ThailandRyan

[Operator2002]

On 3/29/2023 at 3:16 PM, 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.

How they can stay long term - through education visa only. 

Or doing visaruns every 2 months but without guaranteed permission to enter again after a couple of visaruns... 

[Danderman123]

On 3/29/2023 at 7:55 PM, 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.

the numbers are all guesses.

 

I went to Foodmart in Jomtien yesterday. It was jammed with Russians a couple of months ago, not there were almost zero.

 

My condo building is becoming very quiet as the Russians go home.

 

 

I guess the Azur Air charters from UTapao are not flying back empty.

 

 

[LaosLover]

Same in Chiang Mai. Saw a ton of Russians in the pots bars in October, haven't seen  one in many a month.  

 

Amusing anecdote: Back in September, I was volunteering at a pot bar in Bangkok and about a dozen separate Russian backpackers were headed to Udon, to a pot form.

 

I keep looking for the inevitable amusing article from my favorite poster, Webfact.

[ThailandRyan]

53 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

the numbers are all guesses.

 

I went to Foodmart in Jomtien yesterday. It was jammed with Russians a couple of months ago, not there were almost zero.

 

My condo building is becoming very quiet as the Russians go home.

 

 

I guess the Azur Air charters from UTapao are not flying back empty.

 

 

We are now seeing more and more arriving her in Hua Hin. Last night at the restaurant we went to there were many Russian families, never seen so many young Russians with prams and with so many kids before.

Edited April 1, 2023 by ThailandRyan

[Jenkins9039]

On 3/30/2023 at 10:24 AM, Mr Meeseeks said:

How do they get Thai Baht from the crypto? 

 

All the Thai exchanges require longer term visas and/or work permits to use them as foreigners. 

There's many companies outside of Thailand that allow P2P (specifically targeting Russians), Thai's are making a lot of money on the spread... 

 

None of this goes through a local exchange, just either payment rails external of Thailand (say a EMI) or via local transactions / collections.

 

Thai exchanges as far as I am aware do not require a long-term visa (I've used both Bitkub, Satang) - had accounts at other exchanges but never used.

 

Bitkub stopped using a long time ago, the continuous KYC was annoying. 

Satang now becoming a pain in the <deleted> also (i.e deposits not credited, low liquidity) 

 

But can say never been asked about visa status in Either (have elite so neither here or there).

 

 

[Kalorymetr]

On 3/30/2023 at 10:24 AM, Mr Meeseeks said:

How do they get Thai Baht from the crypto? 

 

All the Thai exchanges require longer term visas and/or work permits to use them as foreigners. 

binance -> p2p exchange, no one checks anything

[Jiggo]

Heard there is a bigger problem with Russians in Bali....not sure of the details

[Maestro]

Removed some off-topic posts.

[bignok]

On 4/1/2023 at 10:25 AM, LaosLover said:

Same in Chiang Mai. Saw a ton of Russians in the pots bars in October, haven't seen  one in many a month.  

 

Amusing anecdote: Back in September, I was volunteering at a pot bar in Bangkok and about a dozen separate Russian backpackers were headed to Udon, to a pot form.

 

I keep looking for the inevitable amusing article from my favorite poster, Webfact.

Pot form? Saw none in Mukdahan.

[StayinThailand2much]

On 3/29/2023 at 5:50 PM, proton said:

Not stranded, they can go home tomorrow

Also, how are they staying 'long time'? Are they all signing up for the Elite Card?

[geisha]

On 4/1/2023 at 2:58 AM, ThailandRyan said:

We are now seeing more and more arriving her in Hua Hin. Last night at the restaurant we went to there were many Russian families, never seen so many young Russians with prams and with so many kids before.

Just back from,Bali, food shops flooded with Russians, not the restaurants, they are eating home. In my hotel there was a young mother with a very young baby, Russian, we spoke every morning at breakfast. Obviously couldn’t go out due to the extreme heat and humidity( 95% ). She had hired a Balinese nanny, and the hotel being a 5/star must have cost a fortune, she’d been there 3 months. 
I think if  you have the money, it’s no problem in most of Asia., A friend’ of mine in phuket real estate since many years, told me the Russians were buying up any sort of condo , business booming. Local western expats finding it very hard to get decent priced lodgings apparently.