32 Chinese Christian asylum seekers arrested by Pattaya police for visa overstays on Friday

[webfact]

Some of the 63 Chinese nationals detained by Nong Prue police, in Pattaya, on Friday, as they emerged from the police station. They were transported into the custody of the Pattaya Provincial Court holding centre after being charged with visa overstaying in the kingdom which they entered in 2022.

 

by Joseph O' Connor

A group of 63 Chinese nationals including children aligned with a Christian group known as the Mayflower Church, fled China in 2019 and entered Thailand first in 2022 having spent time on the South Korean island of Jeju where hopes of obtaining asylum faded amid alleged harassment orchestrated by the Chinese state. Deana Brown of the Tyler Texas-based Freedom Seekers International has worked with the group throughout and is in Thailand with them. She told media reporters, around the world, on Friday, that they first encountered a problem when they learned that all new Chinese visa renewals here must now be also processed through the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok.

32 Chinese nationals, along with their children, who were detained in Pattaya, Thailand on Friday on overstay charges are facing conviction and deportation back to China, a country they fled from in 2019 seeking asylum from religious persecution. On Friday, as one NGO founder from Texas accompanied the group into the custody of the Pattaya Provincial Court, another, Mr Bob Fu, the founder of ChinaAid, an organisation fighting against religious persecution in China was calling on the State Department in the United States to intervene in what has the potential to become a nightmare scenario for the Thai government.

 

The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok has declined to answer international press enquiries following the detention of 63 members of a persecuted Christian church in Pattaya by local police working with the Immigration Bureau.

 

Full story: https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2023/03/31/chinese-christian-asylums-seekers-arrested-pattaya-visa-overstay/

 

-- © Copyright Thai Examiner 2023-04-01

 

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[webfact]

Chinese Christians exiled in Thailand taken to court for overstaying visas

A police official says they may not be deported to their home country.

By Nontarat Phaicharoen for BenarNews


Chinese Christians exiled in Thailand taken to court for overstaying visas
Members of China’s Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, also known as the Mayflower Church, leave from the Nong Prue police station on their way to a court in Pattaya, Thailand, March 31, 2023. Sakchai Lalit/Associated Press

A Thai court on Friday began the trial of 28 Chinese Christians charged with overstaying their visa, and who were in the country seeking protection from the United Nations refugee agency claiming religious persecution back home, police said.

 

The Associated Press news agency reported that the Chinese were fined and released on Friday. The Chinese exiles belong to the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, also known as the Mayflower Church.

 

One police official said the group of 63 Christians including 35 children, who had been arrested Thursday afternoon, would likely not be deported back to China.

 

 “No, there won’t be that thing. It’s not going to happen,” Col. Tawee Kutthalaeng, chief of the Nong Prue police station, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service.

 

“We did not charge all of them because there were children as well. They were charged with overstaying their visas, staying too long and not renewing their visas.”

 

Full story: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/christians-03312023142900.html

 

 

-- © Copyright Radio FRee Asia 2023-04-01

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

The most versatile and flexible rental investment and holiday home solution in Thailand - click for more information.

[Cricky]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

asylum seekers arrested by Pattaya police

We're doomed.

 

Every swinging dick wants to live in Thailand, now we will be seeing more and more asylum seekers coming here.

 

Send them to Australia, lots of freebies there for them.

[sammieuk1]

Out of the fire into the cooking pot hub of asylum and human rights this place is not just wait for the masters to say return them and they will disappear faster than a Uyghur wearing a free Taiwan tee-shirt  ????

[Salerno]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

One police official said the group of 63 Christians including 35 children, who had been arrested Thursday afternoon, would likely not be deported back to China.

 

 “No, there won’t be that thing. It’s not going to happen,” Col. Tawee Kutthalaeng, chief of the Nong Prue police station, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service.

Wonder if something similar was said back in 2015 prior to:

 

"... in defiance of pleas from the UN's refugee agency UNHCR and several governments, Thailand forcibly repatriated at least 109 Uyghur men, putting them on a plane, handcuffed and hooded, back to China."

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64701784

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

She told media reporters, around the world, on Friday, that they first encountered a problem when they learned that all new Chinese visa renewals here must now be also processed through the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok.

That's not going to end well.

[RichardColeman]

I'd be happy to accept them in my UK and boot out the equivalent amount of mad and expensively monitored jihadi muslims !

[jacko45k]

15 minutes ago, Salerno said:

Wonder if something similar was said back in 2015 prior to:

 

"... in defiance of pleas from the UN's refugee agency UNHCR and several governments, Thailand forcibly repatriated at least 109 Uyghur men, putting them on a plane, handcuffed and hooded, back to China."

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64701784

I was told the tale of one who had spent many years in the IDC in Bangkok and had died in there.... inhuman treatment.

[Salerno]

19 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

I was told the tale of one who had spent many years in the IDC in Bangkok and had died in there.... inhuman treatment.

I believe that was me mentioning it in another thread. One of those forcibly returned to China as mentioned above was the dead guys brother, his wife and kids made it to Turkey.

[Hakuna Matata]

1 hour ago, Cricky said:

We're doomed.

 

Every swinging dick wants to live in Thailand, now we will be seeing more and more asylum seekers coming here.

 

Send them to Australia, lots of freebies there for them.

Yes, absolutely. Why don't they go to Russia?

[ignore it]

"all new Chinese visa renewals here must now be also processed through the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok."

 

That is so creepy

 

Like how does that work?

 

CCP checking out Taiwanese extensions? My extensions? Your renewals?

 

 

 

 

[Salerno]

5 minutes ago, ignore it said:

That is so creepy

That's one way of putting it. Just extending this "creepieness" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_police_overseas_service_stations

[Mr Meeseeks]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

“We did not charge all of them because there were children as well. They were charged with overstaying their visas, staying too long and not renewing their visas.”

I thought as per Thai law there is a 5 or 10 year ban if you are caught on overstay?

 

Making it up as they go along again?

[Cricky]

2 hours ago, Hakuna Matata said:

Yes, absolutely. Why don't they go to Russia?

This is the problem, we also have the Russians coming to Thailand seeking asylum.

 

[brianthainess]

As the Mayflower church originates from the USA then that is where they should be offered asylum IMO (but, they are a peace loving community ). a catch 22 situation.

[Andrew65]

4 hours ago, Cricky said:

We're doomed.

 

Every swinging dick wants to live in Thailand, now we will be seeing more and more asylum seekers coming here.

 

Send them to Australia, lots of freebies there for them.

Or the UK. It's much easier for Thailand (and Australia) to deport these people cos they aren't signed up to the ECHR. Their governments never signed away their sovereignty.

[Purdey]

I sincerely do hope some humanitarian issue will prevent their return to the Land of Persecution. I am sure they don't mind where they go as long as it is not home.

It is unfortunate their church is called the Mayflower however, as we all know how those christians from Europe dealt with the local population in the past.*

*Connotations arising from the name doesn't mean they will do the same

[toofarnorth]

You would think the Old Bill would at least give them masks to wear , don't they wear masks in China?

[connda]

Interesting.  Thailand just set a precedent.

[Mad mick]

5 hours ago, Cricky said:

We're doomed.

 

Every swinging dick wants to live in Thailand, now we will be seeing more and more asylum seekers coming here.

 

Send them to Australia, lots of freebies there for them.

Nothing for us born in Australia Reverse Apathied on its way back too lucky country ????

[foreverlomsak]

53 minutes ago, toofarnorth said:

You would think the Old Bill would at least give them masks to wear , don't they wear masks in China?

If they wore masks the Embassy personnel might not be able to identify them, thus making it difficult for officials to demand "they are our nationals, so return them to China"

[khunPer]

They spent more than 2 years in South Korea – first safe country – I wonder what other nations they contacted from there to apply for asylum...

[Salerno]

28 minutes ago, foreverlomsak said:

If they wore masks the Embassy personnel might not be able to identify them, thus making it difficult for officials to demand "they are our nationals, so return them to China"

They figured that out at the start of the epidemic.

 

How China built facial recognition for people wearing masks

 

https://www.ft.com/content/42415608-340c-4c0a-8c93-f22cdd4cc2d6

[Burma Bill]

1 hour ago, toofarnorth said:

You would think the Old Bill would at least give them masks to wear , don't they wear masks in China?

With the greatest respect - why should they be wearing masks? I am sure most of the tourists now arriving in Thailand do not wear masks (as here in Cambodia).

[transam]

1 minute ago, Burma Bill said:

With the greatest respect - why should they be wearing masks? I am sure most of the tourists now arriving in Thailand do not wear masks (as here in Cambodia).

The policeman was sensible wearing one though.........

[John Drake]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

She told media reporters, around the world, on Friday, that they first encountered a problem when they learned that all new Chinese visa renewals here must now be also processed through the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok.

What? So it has gotten to the point that Thai Immigration is being overseen by the Chinese embassy. How long before Americans' extensions need Chinese approval?

[PremiumLane]

13 hours ago, Cricky said:

Send them to Australia, lots of freebies there for them.

making stuff up again I see 

[still kicking]

7 hours ago, transam said:

The policeman was sensible wearing one though.........

Why wear a mask I have not worn one in 2 years never had covid 

[still kicking]

24 minutes ago, PremiumLane said:

making stuff up again I see 

yes typical Australian bogan. 

[champers]

What a depressing story. With global coverage now at play, Thailand will have to do the decent thing. 

I hope they end up somewhere that makes them feel welcome. Canada or New Zealand would be my guess.