Tsunami Helper Fined For Overstay

[george]

Tsunami helper fined for staying too long

A New Zealander who gave up his holiday to search for missing people after the Boxing Day tsunami was fined by Thai authorities for overstaying when he left the country.

Sam Beaver, 66, from Nelson, was in his hotel at Patong, near Phuket, when the tsunami swamped the coast.

He slept in after celebrating Christmas the night before, and the waves stopped about 200m from the hotel's doorstep.

Instead of heading home, Mr Beaver and a Norwegian friend spent the first week after the disaster going around hospitals and morgues helping the authorities to locate missing people.

"Every morning we were given a call and a list of names."

At the end of each day they contacted the authorities and told them which names they had managed to match.

Mr Beaver stayed in Thailand until January 26, as originally planned, so was surprised when immigration officials pulled him aside as he prepared to board his flight home and told him he was an overstayer.

They told him he owed 200 baht (about $8) for each of the eight days he exceeded his visa.

Mr Beaver said he was shocked, but realised the officials were correct. He had a 30-day visa when he entered Thailand on December 20, and was unaware he needed to renew it.

He told the officials it was an honest mistake, and hoped they would back down when he explained he had spent a lot of time helping the tsunami relief effort. They did not budge.

Despite being initially indignant, Mr Beaver kept his sense of humour and plans to return to Thailand in June.

"I don't blame them. I thought it was quite funny. I helped them out and they charged me $64. It's just bureaucracy."

* Six hundred New Zealand families have committed $300,000 since January 1 to sponsor children affected by the tsunami.

The families signed with the Christian Children's Fund. The money will help pay for books, clothes, shelter and critical community infrastructure.

CCF national director Paul Brown said: "These kind and generous Kiwis have given 664 children a future."

- NZPA 2005-02-11

[The_Moog]

Sort of a non-story really

....is this designed to make us all growl and give us something new to moan about?

If he thought it was inconsequential, why does the guy publicise it.

Hey - if you're Thai, and you try and just transit through Auckland airport - you need a pre-applied transit visa from the NZ Embassy just to wander round the duty free shops airside while you're waiting for your onward flight- and another tourist visa if you want to go outside - fail to get that at your peril !!

[pedro01]

Sort of a non-story really

....is this designed to make us all growl and give us something new to moan about?

If he thought it was inconsequential, why does the guy publicise it.

Hey - if you're Thai, and you try and just transit through Auckland airport - you need a pre-applied transit visa from the NZ Embassy just to wander round the duty free shops airside while you're waiting for your onward flight- and another tourist visa if you want to go outside - fail to get that at your peril !!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

exactly...

[chuchok]

Sort of a non-story really

....is this designed to make us all growl and give us something new to moan about?

If he thought it was inconsequential, why does the guy publicise it.

Hey - if you're Thai, and you try and just transit through Auckland airport - you need a pre-applied transit visa from the NZ Embassy just to wander round the duty free shops airside while you're waiting for your onward flight- and another tourist visa if you want to go outside - fail to get that at your peril !!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

exactly...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes,but your not in a third world country helping out Tsunami victims.Big difference.

Mind you, NZIS are indeed a bunch of over zealous, uneducated pricks.

[taxexile]

if you answer a government request for volunteers to help in the aftermath of a disaster like the tsunami and then you get fined at the airport for helping too long which is what happened then you would be entitled to be somewhat p1ssed off.

there are times when you apply laws and times when you turn a blind eye.

i hope this story makes the thai press and that those in charge of these pathetic worthless immigration penpushing jobsworths send word down to their braindead minions that it will be enough to mention the offence to the overstayer without fleecing him as well.

flouting most laws here is almost compulsory , how come immigration have to take this stance.

yet again....... amazing thailand.

[ovenman]

He told the officials it was an honest mistake, and hoped they would back down when he explained he had spent a lot of time helping the tsunami relief effort. They did not budge.

I suppose he figured that honest mistake worked well in the past for Mr. Big. Why not him as well?

[sriracha john]

Precisely.... now if he had said that his honest mistake was due to misinformation he received from his majority share-holder chauffeur... everything would have been forgiven.

[ovenman]

Or perhaps even "it was my wife's fault".

I suppose this is all a matter of perspective though. Looking at things from immigration's viewpoint, they probably feel the guy ought to feel lucky they didn't have his ass hauled off to jail for working in Thailand without a work permit (and on a thirty-day entry stamp no less!).

[triplegee]

I suppose this is all a matter of perspective though.  Looking at things from immigration's viewpoint, they probably feel the guy ought to feel lucky they didn't have his ass hauled off to jail for working in Thailand without a work permit (and on a thirty-day entry stamp no less!). 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Or maybe he could even feel lucky for still being around to have a gripe???

I agree wholeheartedly with The_Moog - this is so much a non-story... particulalry given what has taken place in recent times.

[phuketsiam]

I don't see how immigration could handle it differently, they would be expected to fine all overstays regardless

[Crazy Dave]

it would have caused immigration way to many problems to waive the fine, shame though really.

[The_Moog]

Tsunami story is really 'running on fumes' now.

Disgruntled Kiwis....cannibal crabs...umbrella wars

Wonder what the next story will be .....- "cat falls in sea"

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Tsunami story is really 'running on fumes' now.

Disgruntled Kiwis....cannibal crabs...umbrella wars

Wonder what the next story will be .....- "cat falls in sea"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The old wet pussy story

[samran]

quite funny really. By the sounds of it, he was going to be an overstayer anyway, Tsunami or no Tsunami.

[Chutney]

If Thailand hopes for the return of the tourist dollar/ pound a little sensitivity to World feeling might be a good idea.

Thailand has come across as being more concerned with loss of money than human suffering. Whatever the red tape difficulties fining volunteers looks very bad indeed. Cold hearted and cynical. Personally I think this governments lead and arrogant attitude towards Western tourists has disgusted many.

I came back to UK 2 weeks ago and this sums up the opinion of everyone I've spoken to.

[ovenman]

If Thailand hopes for the return of the tourist dollar/ pound a little sensitivity to World feeling might be a good idea.

To paraphrase Mr Big, World Feeling is not Thailand's father.

I came back to UK 2 weeks ago and this sums up the opinion of everyone I've spoken to.

I have passed both the story that starts this topic this story and the work permit crackdown for tsunami relief volunteers story along to a number of people I know without any editorializing about either tale on my part. These friends have no connection to Thailand nor much interest in it aside from the fact that they know I live there. I can assure you that exactly none of the responses I received back from these people echoed the sentiments of "I don't see how immigration could handle it differently, they would be expected to fine all overstays regardless".

For a country that concerns itself so much with face and image...

Edited February 13, 2005 by ovenman

[Axel]

"I help them and they charge me" sounds strange.

Why did he not ask 'them' to straighten out his visa, for sure 'they', the immigration officer would not know wether it's true or not.

A thank you to a genuine helper, but still, let's be reasonable.

Others might have mis-used the situation after Dec. 26, already. At that time it was easy to go in flip-flops to the aiport and claim to be a victim. Nobody could check the evtl. overstay, humanitarian help came first.