700 Nigerians In Thai Prisons, Others Dead

[ParadiseLost]

I have been searching for statistics showing the number of foreign prisoners by country, in Thai prisons - with little success. It would be interesting to know the ratio by country of tourist entries vs criminal conviction.

Is 700 disproportionate to the number of visitors from Nigeria compared to any other country? My guess is it will definitely be so.

It should be clear to the government what is happening, so if they could clean up their own immigration, customs, police and civil service they could easily solve this problem by restricting Nigeria to business visas until the ratio falls.

Nothing forces Thailand (or any other country) to let anyone in, even if they have a valid visa. Until corruption is properly dealt with in this (or any other) country more criminals will flock here for a piece of the action. Here 'the action' is highly organized and institutional already so they just join the established ranks and pay their share to corrupt cops, who pay...

Unfortunately the way it will be dealt with here - tougher restrictions on legitimate long term visa holders. I doubt many drug dealers have experienced applying for a one year extension here, I have been treated like a criminal (but ultimately like an ATM) on three occasions; but agreeing to pay the requested extra 5k solved all the problems... I am also sure most serious drug dealers will laugh at putting 400k in the bank to get a visa - chump change. For a chump system.

I am not Thai or Nigerian bashing I hope, I am just fed up with greed and corruption and what it has done to this world. Governments were put in place to serve the people but today that is not the case, in most (all?) countries.

[cricketer]

I suppose they can't all be bad !!!

[Hofmann303]

Although many Nigerians are here on lawful purposes, what possible reason can the large gang of Nigerians that hang out at lower Sukumvit be here for? And without doubt the boys in brown in those jurisdictions know exactly what they are doing. I can't imagine local Thai business owners who suffer a loss in business due to the declining image of Soi3 & 5 stand by and say nothing to the police or local politicians. If it's obvious for us ex-pats what is going on there its obvious to the authorities, and they either pay a blind eye which is highly unlikely or they are provided with tea money or a share of the profits.

[losworld]

Cry me a river. Justice is served. Nigerians, far more than most other nationalities, commit a disproportionate number of drug and fraud crimes relative to other nationalities. I have travelled and worked heavily in various SE Asian locales over the last 9 or so years and local police have informed me that Nigerians confirm this. I can't think of a better "vacation destination" for a drug dealing, scam perpetrating Nigerian, than a Thai prison.

It's not always the Nigerians...

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/court-israelis-suspected-in-nigerian-scam-can-be-extradited-to-u-s-1.296597

[Nisa]

Bishop Frank Owali of the World Overseer of Hebron-Harvest International Ministry, with headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, has raised alarm over alleged hostile treatment and harassment of Nigerians by the authorities of Thailand.

Anybody know anything about this Bishop or the church? Not much online but this somewhat skeptical looking website http://hhimthailand.tripod.com/index.html

[Britannia]

Educated people never cease to amaze me.

Thai attitude!!! They are Farang! Inferior of no importance, tar them all with the same brush (racism)

Farnag attitude!!! They are all African blacks! Inferior of no importance, tar them all with the same brush (racism)

Yes there are a load of so called scum bags out there, Nigerian and Farang, lets not forget the Thais, Tar everyone with the same brush.

Educated Whoofff.

[Estrada]

I hope they release them all soon so I can get that money the all have for me. I was wondering why I had not been getting as many emails lately.

Good one. I haven't recevied many of the offers recently but instaed I found out I've one a Football Pool so at least the money will still keep rolling in.

Hope it was as good as my win. Yesterday I inhereted 55 million USD from a relative I never knew I had. Apparented he made his fortune in Hong Kong real estate but unfortunately he was killed in a plane crash 5 yrs ago.

Sounds like the same plane crash a friend of mine's long lost relative was killed in. Scam was run by a Nigerian based in Kuala Lumpur, posing a a barister to trace relatives. He parted with GBP46,000 in various up front fees, to facilitate the transfer of the money before he asked me. The scam was elaborate as he had even set up a fake bank web site which appeared genuine and fully functional. He was about part with a further GBP20000 when I told him it was obviously a Nigerian 419 Scam from what we call in the Expat World "The Ebola Monkey Men". The second highest contribution to Nigerian GDP after Oil is Advance Fee Fraud and Scams. He had never heard of the name of the relative before but personal greed got the better of him. I checked them out through my connections with the Malaysian Police and the Malaysian Banks and they said the bank was a fraud and arrests wer emade. He never got his money back.

[vincentc]

stressing that several Nigerian business enterprises and churches had been shut down by the Thai police.

Interesting. What kind of business enterprises are these exactly? it would be good to know some examples of bona fide Nigerian enterprises in Thailand, so that we can use these against the prejudices.

Anyone? any?

[jesmoove]

If you don't know any Nigerians, understand their culture or society, spoken to them, worked with them, or even visited their country--you have no valid point of view...that's the bottom line.

Another thing, people get scam emails from all over the world and for most of you, you probably dont even know where the email came from or who sent it...don't be so quick to share

your stories until you know the facts...I would encourage everyone not to make derogatory remarks against any race/class of people/religion.

Do you live in Thailand?

Sure do...since 04...why do you ask?

[penwithchris]

In the 1970's and 1980's I worked for HM Government as a 'Diplomatic Inspector' in London safeguarding the interests of locally recruited staff in Embassies and High Commissions. Of course I was only permitted to be in these establishments with the consent of the various countries visited, but, in the main, I was warmly welcomed and often invited to social functions.

Not so in the Nigerian High Commission in Northumberland Avenue. I hated going there. The security was overtly threatening and the Nigerian staff went out of their way to try to humiliate me as a British servant of the Crown. I always breathed a huge sigh of relief when I returned to the street and picked my way back to my base through the dozens of illegally parked Mercs and BMW's that blocked every pavement in the surrounding area.

I'm afraid these memories have continued to cloud my view of Nigerians generally, but one would have thought that the High Commission would have attracted the very best of Nigeria's nationals. But, there again, maybe these were the best.

On a separate note, during Thaksin's period of office the number of drug dealers I encountered in the various cities and provinces declined markedly. As soon as Abhisit became PM I was getting constantly accosted by dealers both black and Thai. A Thai relative through marriage refrained from dealing during Thaksin's crackdown but returned to 'service as normal' under Abhisit

[snoother]

Wow. Thailand....The Hub Of Racist Scum Expats. Lets hope some of you meet with the same fate someday

Word.

Half of the post in this topic made me throw up. I don't know which is worse, that the majority of the posters of this forum are racist bigots, or that the only time when the moderators of The Most Heavily Moderated Forum of the World could be useful... they do nothing.

[sirchai]

I hope they release them all soon so I can get that money the all have for me. I was wondering why I had not been getting as many emails lately.

It seems that the" holy man" wasn't allowed to enter Thailand, because of some mysterious activities he had done before. Please check his name using Google....

[OzMick]

The Amari in Soi 5 was always my first stop in Thailand, from my first visit waaaay back. It no longer is, or has been for some time, and for the obvious reasons.

There is not another area in Thailand where drugs, prostitution and other scams are pushed into your face so aggressively. And the fact that it is so blatant leads to the obvious conclusion of police involvement, at least to the extent of pay-off.

If Chalerm wants a crackdown on drugs, here is another great place to start. As to the race/nationality of this plague, I couldn't care less, but as they are clearly NOT Thai nationals, imprisonment and mass deportation seems more than appropriate.

BTW the maximum penalty for dealing drugs in Thailand is death by lethal injection. IF Nigerian nationals are as involved in drug dealing as seems to be popularly believed, then should it be surprising that they are incarcerated and die in Thai prisons?

Edited October 5, 2011 by OzMick

[moonbarman]

I used to regularly stay at the Amari Blvd Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 5 back in 2004-2005. I would stay there for a few days when I entered Thailand and a couple of days when leaving. Around 2010 I stayed there one time and there was constant drug dealing going on right outside the hotel by the Foodland. I had a group of about 6 Nigerian men block the sidewalk and not let me pass where they aggressively offered me drugs and tried to introduce me to a couple of African prostitutes. When I respectfully declined they became agitated and accused me of being racist.

I walked through that area again in 2011 and saw that it had only gotten worse. I no longer stay at the Amari Blvd, and will not again until I see the area has been cleaned up. I have talked to other people who have said the same thing.

Some people on this forum think it is racist of me to even share this experience.

Apparently, if one prefers to vacation in an area where he is not regularly aggressively offered drugs and prostitutes, and intimidated and insulted when he refuses, then he is a racist.

Kind of like how back in the USA, if you oppose Obama's policies, you are racist.

Or the authorities finally trying to get a handle on the problem and locking up the offenders, they are racist.

The race card is the last ditch effort to swing the argument by people defeated by the reality of the situation.

well said acranger i also used to stay regularly around suksoi 3-5 between 2000-07 and loved the area but was intimidated on more than one occasion by the african immigrants in the area, so i complained to a few of the hotels on the room questionaires but it looks like it fell on deaf ears as the hotels will eventually be the losers, and now i stay away from that area when i visit bkk, i hope they sort it out as soon as possible.

[jesmoove]

If you don't know any Nigerians, understand their culture or society, spoken to them, worked with them, or even visited their country--you have no valid point of view...that's the bottom line.

Another thing, people get scam emails from all over the world and for most of you, you probably dont even know where the email came from or who sent it...don't be so quick to share

your stories until you know the facts...I would encourage everyone not to make derogatory remarks against any race/class of people/religion.

Do you live in Thailand?

Sure do...since 04...why do you ask?

Do you have any direct experience regarding the Nigerian problems in Bangkok, or do you live in an isolated area?

I wouldn't say I go down to Suk. 3/5 to hang out everyday and chat with the boys but I go to Gulliver's or pool bar (now gone) on top of foodland. Eaten at the Arab restaurants on a few occasions and walk through the small alley filled with leather sandle shops and not once did I feel threaten or approached by anyone want to sell me legal or illegal drugs (or in general accosting me). Where are you going with this??

[Estrada]

Everyone should be allowed a trial, lets not prosecute people without knowing or understanding the truth...just makes us all look racist and narrow minded. Oh and dont put your real name with your picture on a forum unless you are willing to stand up to your comments in public (if by chance you are rude and negative towards people). Remember we are civil people act like it.

Hi i agree, but please show me a nigerian thats not involved with drugs or some sort of scam, my son got kidnapped by nigerians, beaten up kept locked up for days whe got him out went to the police station to lay a charge.The police told us they wont go in to arrest them because its to dangerous for them, oh if you havnt guessed Im from South Africa

Look person from SA. I don't know your story and I am sorry that happened to you. Glad to hear you got him back. But you see, you can't base one incident on an entire nation or ethnicity. You want me to show you good Nigerian, start by going to church/Mosque you can find them, if you take time to talk to someone from Nigeria (perhaps just be pen pals) before giving the entire race a condemnation. I just think people should really look inside themselves before they judge others and understand what they say can spread HATE. Do you really want to carry around this HATE all your life... and pass it on to your children? Bad things happen all around the world to all kinds of people...good and bad people.

Scamming is the second highest contributor to Nigerian GDP after oil. It is Nigeria's Major Industry. Billions have been scammed worldwide by Nigerian Scammers, and almost nothing is being done about it. I am afraid that until the honest Nigerians put and end to this instead of keeping silent, then they are tarred with the same brush. Even the Nigerian Churchs that have been set up here appear to be scams by the Church Leaders. I saw several videos of the church services at one church near Patanakhan, and it was quite obviuosly a scam to extort money from the bretheren. I am not surprised at the report that a number of the clergy have skipped the Country. So do to say go to a Church and you can find good Nigerians. I know one expat from Thailand who went to Nigeria to try to get his money back from the ebola monkeymen(Nigerian Scammers) and was murdered.

I am not a racist, my best friends have been from Ghana and the West Indies. But the Nigerian Scamming Industry is such a scurge on the Whole World. So many Thais have also lost money to the Nigerian Scammers that I know, I am not surprised that there are 700 Nigerians locked up now.

[softgeorge]

Just looking at this site. It lists the prisons in Thailand and the names and countries of foreigners held. Nigeria is certainly up there with Nepal in numbers followed by Ghana and the UK. Now I am not saying this is factual but some may find it interesting prior to commenting on this topic.

Prisons and Prisoners - ForeignPrisoners.com - Foreign Prisoners ...

www.usp.com.au/fpss/prisoners.html

Thailand has some of the worse & most notorious prisons around. From 'The Big Tiger' to the 'Bangkok Hilton', Bangkwang , Lard Yao Men's & Woman's prisons and several more

Prisons & Prisoners in Thailand Homepage - Click Here <li>Bangkwang Prison <li>Bangkwang Prisoners <li>Lard Yao Mens Prison <li>Lard Yao Men Prisoners <li>Thonbury Remand Prison <li>Bangkok Prison Hospital <li>Suan Plu Prison <li>Pattaya Prison<li> <li>Lard Yao Womens Prison <li>Lard Yao Women Prisoners <li>Chiang Mai Prison <li>Chiang Mai Prisoners <li>Phitsanuloke Prison <li>Chiangrai Prison <li>Phuket Prison <li>Bombat Prison<li>

[blazin]

The racism on this board is remarkable. It's amazing how hypocritical some of you are. I remember a few months back a European being arrested for drug smuggling and the outpouring of sympathy from this board.

I wonder how many of you would resort to criminal activities if you had been unlucky enough to be born in an undeveloped country and not given the opportunities and education that you have.

I am sure if someone said that most old fat balding western males come to Thailand to exploit the countries prostitutes there would be an outcry...lol

[VictorOne]

Seriously, who is really worried how many Nigerians are in Thai prisons. Fact is that 99.99% have broken laws, scammed someone (many) and thoroughly deserve to be in prison wherever that prison might be.

Whats more as bad as the conditions are in the Thai prisons they are probably far and away better than in their own homes in Nigeria.

So why do we get our t's in a tangle about these people and why is there not more news of young Thai, Burmese, Laotian and Cambodian females (many of them children) being trafficked every day of the week (and sold into sexual servitude) by their very own families.

Don't hear too much from all these 'goody two shoes' abot the latter.

[acranger]

I might add, I am supporting Herman Cain for President this election. Too bad huh, kind of blows a big hole in your racism theory doesn't it?

[maccaroni man]

for all those that believe the blacks down on suk 3-5 are harmless victims i suggest you get off you pc bottoms and make trip down there, make a few friends and see how long it takes before they have a way for you to make some fast money. It is the nature of the beast they are smugglers and con artist and proud of it. as for being like detroit or N.O. well no they are not into physical mugging and I never feel in fear of my life as i would be on a dark street in a black neighborhood in LA. N.O., St. Louis, KC, NYC etc.. the afro american black thug is much more violent.

[snoother]

Wow. Thailand....The Hub Of Racist Scum Expats. Lets hope some of you meet with the same fate someday

Word.

Half of the post in this topic made me throw up. I don't know which is worse, that the majority of the posters of this forum are racist bigots, or that the only time when the moderators of The Most Heavily Moderated Forum of the World could be useful... they do nothing.

Please try and behave in a rational manner.

You're right, I should try to adopt the general thai visa consensus.

All Nigerians are scum and deserve to rot in thai prisons without trial or medical treatment.

[tolsti]

This may help to explain why there were so many ''Pastors'' here...

Pastors....my as@

[swillowbee]

... all the race-baiting and Nigeria-bashing aside, what has happened to Lower Sukhumvit is an excellent example of why we do not really want the Thai government to make it easier for foreigners to secure visas here.

... Thailand is a deeply corrupted society ... a nation where foreign criminals don't just survive, but thrive ... the extortionists, the drug and flesh peddlers, the boiler room crooks ... from the world over, Thailand is safe harbor for criminals, amongst their kind.

... can you imagine what Thailand would be were the government to make it easier for the low-lifes of the world to come here? ... until Thai corruption is de-institutionalized and a rule of law enforced, best to keep the hurdles to foreign entry high ... a good bet that will not happen in our lifetimes.

... sad.

[moonbarman]

I used to regularly stay at the Amari Blvd Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 5 back in 2004-2005. I would stay there for a few days when I entered Thailand and a couple of days when leaving. Around 2010 I stayed there one time and there was constant drug dealing going on right outside the hotel by the Foodland. I had a group of about 6 Nigerian men block the sidewalk and not let me pass where they aggressively offered me drugs and tried to introduce me to a couple of African prostitutes. When I respectfully declined they became agitated and accused me of being racist.

I walked through that area again in 2011 and saw that it had only gotten worse. I no longer stay at the Amari Blvd, and will not again until I see the area has been cleaned up. I have talked to other people who have said the same thing.

Some people on this forum think it is racist of me to even share this experience.

Apparently, if one prefers to vacation in an area where he is not regularly aggressively offered drugs and prostitutes, and intimidated and insulted when he refuses, then he is a racist.

Kind of like how back in the USA, if you oppose Obama's policies, you are racist.

Or the authorities finally trying to get a handle on the problem and locking up the offenders, they are racist.

The race card is the last ditch effort to swing the argument by people defeated by the reality of the situation.

well said acranger i also used to stay regularly around suksoi 3-5 between 2000-07 and loved the area but was intimidated on more than one occasion by the african immigrants in the area, so i complained to a few of the hotels on the room questionaires but it looks like it fell on deaf ears as the hotels will eventually be the losers, and now i stay away from that area when i visit bkk, i hope they sort it out as soon as possible.

Oh and just a side note the one good thing about all the african immigrants being in thailand is that there are less of the scumbags trying to get to the uk for a free lunch.

[Nisa]

I have a feeling both this Bishop and this story aren't all together right.

[BigRick]

To bad that number is not 7000 good thing you can't play the race card in Thailand in the States these unfortunate parasites would be considered victims. It is one thing I love about living here vs the states it is devoid of a certain ethnicity and I will take the Thais treating these people like the trash they are than cry a river for people who clearly demonstrate a much higher % of crime. I feel bad for the moderator having to be so PC. They did the same thing in Vietnam because that got sick of their crap. If its racist to point out the truth out Africans in Thailand then I guess I am a racist.

[Angelo99]

They do seemed to have reduced the number of West African trash hanging around lower Suk in BKK but not nearly enough. You still get cased and harassed half the time you walk around there. If they're not pimping their women or trying to sell you drugs, they've got some "business opportunity" to talk to you about. At least when the Thais approach you with some scam they piss off fairly quickly when you say no or ignore them. The Africans doing this stuff just won't quit. They follow you and keep at it.

The Nigerian government even publicly admitted about 5-6 years ago that they estimated that 98% of Nigerians traveling to Thailand were doing so to either smuggle in drugs or work as drug dealers or other criminals in Thailand. No surprise their embassy doesn't give a crap about them, they know they're nearly all criminals.

Never understood how the Thai mafia and police let them grow to such numbers in the first place. They've been steadily moving into the Patts area over the past year and half as well. Between the Russians and the West Africans, they're really setting themselves up for a big hurt in a few years. Stamp them both out now before their foothold gets any stronger.

[swillowbee]

I have a feeling both this Bishop and this story aren't all together right.

... ah, Nisa ... as with my post just before yours on the South African tourist held by the Phuket police on suspicion of passing counterfeit notes, a useful application of Occam's Razor ... except that in this case, both the Thai and the Nigerian sides of the argument are wildly infected with extraneous claims, all of which are possible.

... comes down to whose crooks are more notorious ... the Royal Thai Police, or the Nigerian professional scammers ... I call it a photo finish, but I give the advantage to the Royal Thai Police by a nose ... (but, a Thai nose, not a Nigerian nose).

... agree with you on this one.

[OzMick]

The racism on this board is remarkable. It's amazing how hypocritical some of you are. I remember a few months back a European being arrested for drug smuggling and the outpouring of sympathy from this board.

I wonder how many of you would resort to criminal activities if you had been unlucky enough to be born in an undeveloped country and not given the opportunities and education that you have.

I am sure if someone said that most old fat balding western males come to Thailand to exploit the countries prostitutes there would be an outcry...lol

Another bleeding heart ! You should have a long chat with my friend Rajah, born into very modest circumstances in India but managed through much family scraping and saving to obtain an engineering degree. He took a job in W. Africa (not Nigeria) where some similarly deprived gentlemen decided to deprive him of his gold ring. Unluckily for him, it didn't come off easily so they removed a finger to assist - initially they were going to use a machete but he managed to plea for the loss of only half a finger.

His attitude towards unfortunates who turn to crime is a lot more convincing than yours.

BTW with regard to fat balding western males and thai prostitutes, exactly who is exploiting whom is a moot point.