Brit Faces Two Years In Thai Jail For Being 'rude'.

[thai1]

There has to be more to it than he is telling (of course, because it is his side we are hearing, with just some comments from immigration).

edited by the press

[thai1]

I think this childish man deserves to be locked up for a very long time to make an example of him.

How pitiful

I think that if one can't consider the irresponsible and abusive actions of officials antagonising a visitor leading to his request and then backlash one should lock ones keyboard away for a very long time and asses ones worth

[thai1]

He shouldn't have told them to F off.

He didn't. Bang goes that point

[thai1]

Only a complete idiot would act the way he did. Can't feel sorry for him even though the sentence is rather harsh, in fact it is rather funny.

mmm... not protesting for over an hour. Meanwhile showing i.d and holiday video then asking for service when flight was deliberately sent without him without explanation. Then swears when professionals giggle at him. Yeah, sure total idiot. Is ther anything in your wharped head that isn't funny

[thai1]

I don't think that there is any doubt that the man was rude and swore at immigration officials.

My guess is, that had he kept calm while they scrutinised his passport he might have been allowed to board his plane and not jailed.

This is a warning to everyone who reads this story, that in Thailand you are at the mercy of higher powers so must never resort to rudeness and swearing at Thai officials.

Did he deserve jail for 3 weeks? Yes, I bet it taught him a lesson he'll never forget.

Does he deserve 2 years jail for rudeness? No, send him home and bar him from Thailand.

Do the British Embassy staff ever help? Rarely and only if you are an OE or a peer of the realm.

after 2 hours chatting with a superior mr burrowes was arrested for a false passport to later be verified by embassy. Read the blog. You guessed wrong. I should imagine the lesson would be that impunity waits around any corner regardless wether physical authority or from critics

[PhiPhi]

After reading all the articles, forums and blogs I could find on this here's my 10 cent summary.

The Thai Immg Police are an enforcement agency first and foremost not a service industry. In the UK where Simon hails from there is a growing belief that public officials are also public servants and by conclusion the public have certain expectations of how they will/should be treated by public servants. Many here on the forum have testified to the fact that they have received good treatment from public officials in Thailand and indeed Simon may have experienced this good treatment on arrival and during his stay which may have led him to believe that in these matters things are not too different from his home country.

From what I can ascertain after having missed his flight after being assured the plane would not leave without him he had a rant and took his passport back in order to take his case to a higher ranking official. Given the circumstances I think the rant (even if inadvisable) was easily excusable, in the space of a couple of hours Simon had gone from being an average tourist returning from an enjoyable Thai vacation to a suspected criminal stranded in an airport without means to get home, I'd bet at this stage his main concern was still how to raise the money for another ticket home. Nobody is claiming he physically threatened the immigration officials and it is doubtful as to whether he personally abused them, I could easily imagine he (wrongly) threw a few expletives into his comments to try and get somebody to take his plight more seriously, unfortunately they did but not in a way he or many tourists could have imagined.

I am guessing that those in the 'string him up, the nasty little yob got what he deserved' camp are more interested in provoking those in the 'bleeding heart liberal, it's so unfair' camp than really advocating the predicament Simon finds himself in.

In my humble opinion there are in fact two injured parties here; obviously Simon but also a vast majority of Thai public officials who are professional, sympathetic, kind and helpful, they are now in danger of being tarred with the same brush as the more egotistical and intolerant members of their profession.

The real problem now is that there is little hope of this being settled quietly and the fact that the UK FCO do not appear to be doing all at their disposal to diffuse this incident (apologies to FCO if you are indeed working away in the background) there is a chance that Simon will have to spend more time in custody. Even if Simon's account is accurate and proved on the recording who amongst us would like to bet that the phrase "I'm not a frakking idiot" is not classed as being rude to a Thai official, however this once again harks back to my previous observation despite what many think there are some very good judges here who are not anti-farang and take great pride in examining the facts and coming to decisions which are just.

One of the problems is without a definitive definition (is that correct?) of rude or abuse behavior how is the hapless tourist supposed to judge what is acceptable? Sure outright physical intimidation or uncontrollable raging and ranting is pretty universally understood as bad behavior but standards of acceptable vernacular vary between social strata, from province to province let alone country to country. In this respect it would not be unreasonable to expect that at a popular international tourist destination a greater level of tolerance for colourful language could be expected.

With regards to the racial profile element it's not just Thailand it happens everywhere and a statement by Simon that 'he's used to it' does not necessarily indicate a 'huge chip on his shoulder' it only shows that he is aware of it and in his mind was not the contributing factor to his outburst.

In conclusion this sort of systemic failure could have happened almost anywhere given the right circumstances and all most of us can do is learn from this and pray it does not happen to us.

Simon if you read this join the forum, PM me with a contact details and I'll do what I can to help albeit with meager resources.

[Swelters]

There is really little point in taking a position on this matter, either way.

Better reflect on what is going on here, for our own benefit. I have two ideas:

1. Thai authorities including such as grade school teachers and shopowners and even sales people in some establishments, think of themselves as authorities, demanding high respect. Public flaunting of this custom is an extreme challenge not easily shrugged off. Of course this attitude can be very annoying to westerners.

2. The slightest raising of the voice is not infrequently taken as close to uncontrolled shouting suggesting the person is out of control of themselves or seriously lacking in good sense. This could be confirmed by threatening movements, glaring, etc. A barechested passport photo would finish the diagnosis of "complete insanity" to most Thai.

Nothing said in this forum is going to change this.

Edited April 20, 2009 by Swelters

[tartempion]

Procedure error on Thai immigration officials side.

These people are badly in need for decent training.

Saw a doc again on sat TV, re Brussels airport

Immigration officer halted inbound traveler with suspect passport.

Boss was called upon, came over, examined passport and took man to his office for deeper investigation.

This professional guy discovered the passport was a fake Polish passport and the man admitted in the end he was Ukrainian (sp?) and paid 1k euro for the fake. He was brought to a detention center at the airport for one night and put on a plane to Ukraine the next day. OK, the man kept his cool all the time but then no one joked him neither.

When you read Simon's story where his passport was handed over to an other immigration officer who could not confirm/infirm what exactly was wrong with that passport after taking one or two hours, letting the man's plane leave without him (lack of respect for tourists) and who failed to escalate the problem to his command chain, that says enough about the incompetence of these officials!!!

Considering the man was LEAVING the kingdom, one can wonder what's wrong with these officials

Edited April 20, 2009 by tartempion

[thesyndicate]

Loosing face is one thing that is "wrong" with them. If you scream he or she will loose his face so to speak. To get it back he need to take strong action. Western do not have save face and a protocol what to do and who to call. They also have human rights Thailand does not.

[thaiwanderer]

Nothing said in this forum is going to change this.

or anything else

[Sabum]

2. The slightest raising of the voice is not infrequently taken as close to uncontrolled shouting suggesting the person is out of control of themselves or seriously lacking in good sense. This could be confirmed by threatening movements, glaring, etc. A barechested passport photo would finish the diagnosis of "complete insanity" to most Thai.

Nothing said in this forum is going to change this.

There was NO bare chested photo of him in his passport, please don't promote misinformation.

[valentinob29]

Loosing face is one thing that is "wrong" with them. If you scream he or she will loose his face so to speak. To get it back he need to take strong action. Western do not have save face and a protocol what to do and who to call. They also have human rights Thailand does not.

this is so true

its so sad

people like that fool pimfram and others only make matters worst- they are pure ingrates

the west should bring thailand to its knees each time it steps out of line for this

this is no the racism but fundamental abuse

and we c al ourselves buddhists

SHAME!

[valentinob29]

2. The slightest raising of the voice is not infrequently taken as close to uncontrolled shouting suggesting the person is out of control of themselves or seriously lacking in good sense. This could be confirmed by threatening movements, glaring, etc. A barechested passport photo would finish the diagnosis of "complete insanity" to most Thai.

Nothing said in this forum is going to change this.

There was NO bare chested photo of him in his passport, please don't promote misinformation.

please pass a message to this poor man

if he ever choses to retun to thailand I will ensure that he enters without any troubles

please do NOT listen to any BS about any silly blacklists

send us a meesage we will assit

where is he please?

does he needs books/visits?

[Electra]

There is really little point in taking a position on this matter, either way.

Better reflect on what is going on here, for our own benefit. I have two ideas:

1. Thai authorities including such as grade school teachers and shopowners and even sales people in some establishments, think of themselves as authorities, demanding high respect. Public flaunting of this custom is an extreme challenge not easily shrugged off. Of course this attitude can be very annoying to westerners.

2. The slightest raising of the voice is not infrequently taken as close to uncontrolled shouting suggesting the person is out of control of themselves or seriously lacking in good sense. This could be confirmed by threatening movements, glaring, etc. A barechested passport photo would finish the diagnosis of "complete insanity" to most Thai.

Nothing said in this forum is going to change this.

A measured analysis and worthy of reflection even if the facts, such as they are, do not necessarily justify the outcome.

Burrowes passport was issued some 9 years ago in Australia in replacement of a document that was no longer available to him. The consulate, in Melbourne I believe, issued it at a time when posts abroad could do so manually and without the record being held centrally by the Identity and Passport Service in the UK. In those circumstances the passport may well have borne idiosyncracies peculiar to that post, eg different typeface of bio data and the laminate containing the photograph may well have been applied in a manner different to other issuing posts.It certainly could not have been machine readable since no posts at that time had the capability to produce such documents.

Mr. Burrowes is black.

He checked in at Phuket accompanied by a friend intent upon returning home to the UK at the conclusion of his holiday and had produced a ticket which confirmed that he was travelling on an itinerary which had clearly commenced in the UK.

He presented himself to the embarkation control immigration officer who upon scrutinising his document suspected that it may have been forged. He summoned a fellow officer who concurred that the document was worthy of further scrutiny.

UK travel documents, like probably all others from developed countries, are routinely subject to abuse by those who would wish to migrate to what is perceived to be a better country in circumstances not otherwise available. The most common method of tampering is either photo substitution and counterfeit bio data or impersonation. Inevitably, those who would wish to take advantage of this route are from disadvantaged countries, many of which are African.

There is a large concentration of West African nationals currently stranded in Thailand who would wish to be elsewhere. The trade in counterfeit and forged documents in Bangkok is well recognised as is the fact that it is a staging post for illegal migration and trafficking.

As I said, Mr. Burrowes is black and his passport was not one which would have been recognised as typical of the thousands encountered daily by the Thai immigration.

Showing due diligence the Thai contacted the British embassy in order to verify the provenance of Mr.Burrowes' passport. It was a Friday in the late morning. The British consular staff have Friday afternoons off. It is a perk and they like it. The officer answering the query from Phuket could not trace Mr.Burrowes' passport and reported the fact back to Phuket. This of course was hardly surprising since the document had been issued in Melbourne some 9 years previously and would not appear on the database checked by the consular official. In any event the officer did not choose to speak to Mr.Burrowes ( for if he had he would have been able to satisfy himself of Mr.Burrowes' Britishness and the circumstances of his passport issue ) nor was he minded to pursue any further enquiries until the next working day i.e. Monday. The Thai having been informed that there was no record of the passport issue naturally concluded that Mr.Burrowes was not entitled to the document and proceeded to treat him as an offender with all that that entailed.

Mr.Burrowes in protesting his innocence simply reacted in a manner anyone in his circumstances might have done. The Thai equally were blameless in that at the time they were convinced they had detected a forgery and had captured an illegal migrant. That he was black and appeared to have a bare torso as depicted in the passport photograph simply added grist to the mill and justified his subsequent treatment.

Altogether, this was an unfortunate incident arising out of a combination of factors but perhaps one shouldn't overlook. The hapless British consular official whose ineptitude was only exceeded by his evident sloth and eager anticipation of a rather nice long weekend.

[sriracha john]

2. The slightest raising of the voice is not infrequently taken as close to uncontrolled shouting suggesting the person is out of control of themselves or seriously lacking in good sense. This could be confirmed by threatening movements, glaring, etc. A barechested passport photo would finish the diagnosis of "complete insanity" to most Thai.

Nothing said in this forum is going to change this.

There was NO bare chested photo of him in his passport, please don't promote misinformation.

Has his passport photo been made public?

if he ever choses to retun to thailand I will ensure that he enters without any troubles

:D Commissioner of the Immigration Bureau Lieutenant-General Chatchawan Suksomchit?

[thaiwanderer]

There is really little point in taking a position on this matter, either way.

Better reflect on what is going on here, for our own benefit. I have two ideas:

1. Thai authorities including such as grade school teachers and shopowners and even sales people in some establishments, think of themselves as authorities, demanding high respect. Public flaunting of this custom is an extreme challenge not easily shrugged off. Of course this attitude can be very annoying to westerners.

2. The slightest raising of the voice is not infrequently taken as close to uncontrolled shouting suggesting the person is out of control of themselves or seriously lacking in good sense. This could be confirmed by threatening movements, glaring, etc. A barechested passport photo would finish the diagnosis of "complete insanity" to most Thai.

Nothing said in this forum is going to change this.

A measured analysis and worthy of reflection even if the facts, such as they are, do not necessarily justify the outcome.

Burrowes passport was issued some 9 years ago in Australia in replacement of a document that was no longer available to him. The consulate, in Melbourne I believe, issued it at a time when posts abroad could do so manually and without the record being held centrally by the Identity and Passport Service in the UK. In those circumstances the passport may well have borne idiosyncracies peculiar to that post, eg different typeface of bio data and the laminate containing the photograph may well have been applied in a manner different to other issuing posts.It certainly could not have been machine readable since no posts at that time had the capability to produce such documents.

Mr. Burrowes is black.

He checked in at Phuket accompanied by a friend intent upon returning home to the UK at the conclusion of his holiday and had produced a ticket which confirmed that he was travelling on an itinerary which had clearly commenced in the UK.

He presented himself to the embarkation control immigration officer who upon scrutinising his document suspected that it may have been forged. He summoned a fellow officer who concurred that the document was worthy of further scrutiny.

UK travel documents, like probably all others from developed countries, are routinely subject to abuse by those who would wish to migrate to what is perceived to be a better country in circumstances not otherwise available. The most common method of tampering is either photo substitution and counterfeit bio data or impersonation. Inevitably, those who would wish to take advantage of this route are from disadvantaged countries, many of which are African.

There is a large concentration of West African nationals currently stranded in Thailand who would wish to be elsewhere. The trade in counterfeit and forged documents in Bangkok is well recognised as is the fact that it is a staging post for illegal migration and trafficking.

As I said, Mr. Burrowes is black and his passport was not one which would have been recognised as typical of the thousands encountered daily by the Thai immigration.

Showing due diligence the Thai contacted the British embassy in order to verify the provenance of Mr.Burrowes' passport. It was a Friday in the late morning. The British consular staff have Friday afternoons off. It is a perk and they like it. The officer answering the query from Phuket could not trace Mr.Burrowes' passport and reported the fact back to Phuket. This of course was hardly surprising since the document had been issued in Melbourne some 9 years previously and would not appear on the database checked by the consular official. In any event the officer did not choose to speak to Mr.Burrowes ( for if he had he would have been able to satisfy himself of Mr.Burrowes' Britishness and the circumstances of his passport issue ) nor was he minded to pursue any further enquiries until the next working day i.e. Monday. The Thai having been informed that there was no record of the passport issue naturally concluded that Mr.Burrowes was not entitled to the document and proceeded to treat him as an offender with all that that entailed.

Mr.Burrowes in protesting his innocence simply reacted in a manner anyone in his circumstances might have done. The Thai equally were blameless in that at the time they were convinced they had detected a forgery and had captured an illegal migrant. That he was black and appeared to have a bare torso as depicted in the passport photograph simply added grist to the mill and justified his subsequent treatment.

Altogether, this was an unfortunate incident arising out of a combination of factors but perhaps one shouldn't overlook the true nigger in the woodpile, the hapless British consular official whose ineptitude was only exceeded by his evident sloth and eager anticipation of a rather nice long weekend.

forgive my ignorance but is this an acceptable phrase in english?

[Electra]

In the context of this story the phrase is both ironic and germane since it implicitly reflects the racist undercurrents that permeate the Thai attitudes. It was not meant to be gratuitous, nor offensive. I think it works on several levels but there it is.

[caf]

In the context of this story the phrase is both ironic and germane since it implicitly reflects the racist undercurrents that permeate the Thai attitudes. It was not meant to be gratuitous, nor offensive. I think it works on several levels but there it is.

Yes I agree, Electra. A good use of figure of speech to make your point.

A better response to your post would have been a comment on the "jobsworth" attitude of the consular official.

[thaiwanderer]

so, i can use it to reflect the racist undercurrents that permeate my attitudes (according to you)

or i can use it if i am being ironic or its use is germane

sounds like its a phrase for all circumstances, thank you

[Tolley]

Electra

It is a bit of a stretch to cast the blame on the English embassy official!

Fact remains that he was locked up for three weeks and is still I believe in thailand awaiting trial.

Commonsense has not prevailed and no one in authority in Thailand has intervened to rectify the matter.

[timinchina]

Guilty as charged!

Another arogant Pom goes where he belongs.

There are clear messages posted at airport enterances warning about abusive language directed at custom officials.

Nice to see Thai authorities taking a stance over these eletist Engilish wide boys

How an un-educated Australian that cannot even spell correctly can have the bare-faced cheek to call ANY other race arrogant(NOT arogant,btw!)is just breathtaking!

For the record,I was in Sydney for the fireworks on New Year's Eve with a friend,we spent 5 days there and couldn't get out fast enough,miserable,moaning,whingeing Aussies,if you had more than 2 beers in the same bar they'd refuse to serve you!

We got hassled on the way in and way out,my travelling buddy put Bar Manager on his immigration card and they were asking him how he could afford to be there.He owns 4 pubs outright(now 5 actually)and is a millionaire but was being a bit modest,I'm a financier and suitably liquid too,we couldn't believe it.My friend vowed NEVER to go back there.Fortunately I've been to Darwin,Northern Territories,the Outback 8 or 9 years ago and had a great time so I MAY venture back there one day!

I don't see how anyone can really comment on this case,it's all just speculation unless you were there and heard him threaten the Customs Official with serious bodily harm.That said,a lengthy jail sentence even for that seems to be complete overkill,a couple of nights or even 3 weeks in the cells to cool down would have been adequate for such an infraction IMHO.

[timinchina]

Yes, it could be, just like if you go up to a policeman and tell him to F off, he might take you for a night or two in the cells and if he really wanted to, you could be charged with breach of the peace or something.

Remember that immigration officials are actually police, you can't go around swearing and being racist towards them and expect nothing will happen.

Hence my earlier comments.

The powers of H.M.Customs and Excise in Britain FAR outweigh the powers of any

police officer in any force throughout the land,the power they wield is actually quite frightening.

They can detain you and keep you locked up as long as they want on nothing more than suspicion,I believe they can also come and search your house on a whim,no warrant asked or required.

It pays to respect such powerful people even more than the police.I think the man in question,though educated in the Martial Arts was not educated in the etiquette of dealing with such people,he is now paying the price for that and will be suitably educated on his release!

[Electra]

so, i can use it to reflect the racist undercurrents that permeate my attitudes (according to you)

or i can use it if i am being ironic or its use is germane

sounds like its a phrase for all circumstances, thank you

Up to you.

[Electra]

Electra

It is a bit of a stretch to cast the blame on the English embassy official!

Really? So, who was responsible for his initial incarceration? The Thai immigration officers who were given to understand that Burrowes was travelling on a false document or the idiotic consular official who led them to that erroneous conclusion?

Frankly, to my mind it is, as the Americans say, a no brainer but you may well have a different view, one that might not exclude the possibility there are fairies prancing about at the bottom of my garden.

[GungaDin]

Yes, it could be, just like if you go up to a policeman and tell him to F off, he might take you for a night or two in the cells and if he really wanted to, you could be charged with breach of the peace or something.

Remember that immigration officials are actually police, you can't go around swearing and being racist towards them and expect nothing will happen.

Hence my earlier comments.

The powers of H.M.Customs and Excise in Britain FAR outweigh the powers of any

police officer in any force throughout the land,the power they wield is actually quite frightening.

They can detain you and keep you locked up as long as they want on nothing more than suspicion,I believe they can also come and search your house on a whim,no warrant asked or required.

It pays to respect such powerful people even more than the police.I think the man in question,though educated in the Martial Arts was not educated in the etiquette of dealing with such people,he is now paying the price for that and will be suitably educated on his release!

I can confirm that.

I crossed the line with HM Customs, once, there is no love lost between the UK police and Customs.

UK cops were great.

[triffid]

There is really little point in taking a position on this matter, either way.

Better reflect on what is going on here, for our own benefit. I have two ideas:

1. Thai authorities including such as grade school teachers and shopowners and even sales people in some establishments, think of themselves as authorities, demanding high respect. Public flaunting of this custom is an extreme challenge not easily shrugged off. Of course this attitude can be very annoying to westerners.

2. The slightest raising of the voice is not infrequently taken as close to uncontrolled shouting suggesting the person is out of control of themselves or seriously lacking in good sense. This could be confirmed by threatening movements, glaring, etc. A barechested passport photo would finish the diagnosis of "complete insanity" to most Thai.

Nothing said in this forum is going to change this.

A measured analysis and worthy of reflection even if the facts, such as they are, do not necessarily justify the outcome.

Burrowes passport was issued some 9 years ago in Australia in replacement of a document that was no longer available to him. The consulate, in Melbourne I believe, issued it at a time when posts abroad could do so manually and without the record being held centrally by the Identity and Passport Service in the UK. In those circumstances the passport may well have borne idiosyncracies peculiar to that post, eg different typeface of bio data and the laminate containing the photograph may well have been applied in a manner different to other issuing posts.It certainly could not have been machine readable since no posts at that time had the capability to produce such documents.

Mr. Burrowes is black.

He checked in at Phuket accompanied by a friend intent upon returning home to the UK at the conclusion of his holiday and had produced a ticket which confirmed that he was travelling on an itinerary which had clearly commenced in the UK.

He presented himself to the embarkation control immigration officer who upon scrutinising his document suspected that it may have been forged. He summoned a fellow officer who concurred that the document was worthy of further scrutiny.

UK travel documents, like probably all others from developed countries, are routinely subject to abuse by those who would wish to migrate to what is perceived to be a better country in circumstances not otherwise available. The most common method of tampering is either photo substitution and counterfeit bio data or impersonation. Inevitably, those who would wish to take advantage of this route are from disadvantaged countries, many of which are African.

There is a large concentration of West African nationals currently stranded in Thailand who would wish to be elsewhere. The trade in counterfeit and forged documents in Bangkok is well recognised as is the fact that it is a staging post for illegal migration and trafficking.

As I said, Mr. Burrowes is black and his passport was not one which would have been recognised as typical of the thousands encountered daily by the Thai immigration.

Showing due diligence the Thai contacted the British embassy in order to verify the provenance of Mr.Burrowes' passport. It was a Friday in the late morning. The British consular staff have Friday afternoons off. It is a perk and they like it. The officer answering the query from Phuket could not trace Mr.Burrowes' passport and reported the fact back to Phuket. This of course was hardly surprising since the document had been issued in Melbourne some 9 years previously and would not appear on the database checked by the consular official. In any event the officer did not choose to speak to Mr.Burrowes ( for if he had he would have been able to satisfy himself of Mr.Burrowes' Britishness and the circumstances of his passport issue ) nor was he minded to pursue any further enquiries until the next working day i.e. Monday. The Thai having been informed that there was no record of the passport issue naturally concluded that Mr.Burrowes was not entitled to the document and proceeded to treat him as an offender with all that that entailed.

Mr.Burrowes in protesting his innocence simply reacted in a manner anyone in his circumstances might have done. The Thai equally were blameless in that at the time they were convinced they had detected a forgery and had captured an illegal migrant. That he was black and appeared to have a bare torso as depicted in the passport photograph simply added grist to the mill and justified his subsequent treatment.

Altogether, this was an unfortunate incident arising out of a combination of factors but perhaps one shouldn't overlook. The hapless British consular official whose ineptitude was only exceeded by his evident sloth and eager anticipation of a rather nice long weekend.

A major chunk of this rationalization of the thai official's action - namely that he was following the trail of a possibly false passport is fanciful or a comment on the idiotic arrogance of the said official. Burrowes was going to England where he would come up before a british passport officer. Did the thai official really suppose - or does electra find it reasonable - that said official was better placed, or remotely as qualified, to assess the authenticity of the british passport as would be the heathrow passport officer?

Edited April 23, 2009 by triffid

[Sabum]

Where is the link saying the official DID NOT speak with Simon, the links I read said he DID speak with Simon and refused to do the work to keep him out of jail as the weekend was coming.

Edited April 23, 2009 by Sabum

[timinchina]

On reflection,having read all 40 pages of postings the whole thing seems to be a comedy of errors but the Thai officials don't seem in my mind to have done too much wrong in detaining somebody they believed to be travelling on a false passport.

There are conflicting reports as to whether the British Embassy at first confirmed or denied that the passport was false,unfortunately Simon was only seeing the whole process from his side,i.e,his bags coming back off the plane and the flight departing without him.

The other side of the coin being if he HAD been travelling on a false passport and the official had not been as thorough,that official would be severely reprimanded by his/her superiors.

The problem is of course the Customs must be allowed to do their job no matter how long it takes without being abused,verbally or otherwise,throw in the inefficiency of the British Embassy and you have a real recipe for disaster.

Was anyone really at fault here,probably not,the Embassy staff were sticking to their working hours,the Border control staff were just doing their job and Simon was understandably frustrated at missing his connecting flight and being kept in the dark as to why,had the passport turned out to be false the authorities would have been unwise in the extreme to pre-warn him as to the line of questioning they would be taking.

So now it just comes down to letting justice run it's course,hopefully lessons will be learned and Simon will be sent on his way,unlikely ever to return to Thailand...I say hopefully in the most optimistic way!

It just seems to be a case of mistaken identity but what if he'd been a terrorist on his way to begin a wave of bombings in London,this would then be a very different story,that's why the Customs officials must be allowed to do their job without interruption.

I can only wish Simon the best of luck and I hope he can move on with his life once this is all over,at least nobody died here!

[PatinBKk]

It would appear that he swore at the immigration official, criticised Thailand & snatched his passport back, so on that basis he got what he deserved & if he does receive a prison sentence, he has only himself to blame - end of discussion. I'd just add that I've no sympathy for him whatsoever.

If the facts are as stated above, then they should have just kicked him out and blacklisted him for a few years. But throwing him in the jug for a couple of years seems a bit harsh.

TheWalkingMan

That made me laugh with the guy being african

[GungaDin]

<snip>that official would be severely reprimanded by his/her superiors. <snip>

The problem is of course the Customs must be allowed to do their job no matter how long it takes without being abused,verbally or <snip> then be a very different story,that's why the Customs officials must be allowed to do their job without interruption.

It's Immigration, Tim, Immigration.... please pay attention!