Locked Up In Mixed Cells And Forced To Bribe Guards So I Could Eat: Englishwoman Tells Of Thai Horror Ordeal...

[Boater]

A young Englishwoman was thrown into a squalid Thai jail cell and threatened with deportation, just because a page was missing from her passport.

Francesca Salt, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, was held for 30 hours in an immigration detention centre, where she was forced to bribe guards for food.

'It was horrific,' said Miss Salt. 'I had to finance my stay in a "cell" I shared with immigrants of all countries of both sexes, and the corruption was shocking.

Ordeal: Francesca Salt, 22, was thrown into a Thai jail cell for 30 hours because her passport was missing a page

'I had to pay the guards for something to eat as the food offered was inedible.'

Miss Salt, 22, had been working in Thailand as an English teacher when, as she returned from a fortnight trip to Indonesia, she was stopped by immigration.

When officers found a page of her passport missing, they frog-marched her to an overcrowded, mixed cell in the airport's detention centre.

'I was held in the retention centre with other would-be immigrants, where I was searched and left for 30 hours,' Miss Salt told the Daily Mail.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053350/Locked-mixed-cells-forced-bribe-guards-I-eat-Young-Englishwoman-tells-Thai-ordeal-page-missing-passport.html#ixzz1btXYgtms

[Orac]

Sounds like a terrible ordeal.

One oddity is that the picture that the DM claim is her passport has the top right corner of the front cover cut off which I thought meant the passport was invalid???

[Swiss1960]

Fact:

Passports contain numbered pages. Passports with missing pages are invalid. Therefore, this woman tried to enter Thailand with a void passport. Therefore immigration has every right to take her in for questioning.

Questions:

How can pages of passports be torn out, how can a passport be so badly damaged? I'm travelling a lot and when I had to change my old passport after expiry (10 years), it was still in very good condition.

How can somebody not realize that a page in a passport is missing / torn out? Or if it was realized, how can somebody be so stupid and not know that the passport is now invalid and not immediately contact their nearest Embassy for issuing of a new / emergency passport

Treatment in Thailand

If all is true that she told the press, then welcome to the Thai way... she would have been treated differently i.e. in Switzerland, but in any case would have been sent back either to the country of origin of the flight or to her home country (after validation that she truly is a British citizen).

All in All

not too much to this story, I would say...

[Swiss1960]

Sounds like a terrible ordeal.

One oddity is that the picture that the DM claim is her passport has the top right corner of the front cover cut off which I thought meant the passport was invalid???

Passport was already invalid with the missing / torn out page. So Thai immigration probably just cut the corner off in order to make it clear to everybody. Normal procedure, even though Swiss immigration would punch two holes through the passport...

[Soutpeel]

Sounds like a terrible ordeal.

One oddity is that the picture that the DM claim is her passport has the top right corner of the front cover cut off which I thought meant the passport was invalid???

It does...it means the PP has been cancelled/invalid...so if she attempted to enter Thailand on a cancelled passport, one could well understand why immigration pulled her in..

[Mario2008]

The picture shows indeed her passport was invalid and the missing pages are another reason why the passport was invalid. It serves as a warning not to travel with a damaged passport.

One wanders why her passport was made invalid and by who, and how comes the passport pages were missing. There might be more to this and by the look of her passport, immigration was right t want to question her. That would have happened in any country.

[janverbeem]

Pages dont go mysteriously missing from a Passport.There certainly is something the Miss forget to tell.

[Soutpeel]

Sounds like a terrible ordeal.

One oddity is that the picture that the DM claim is her passport has the top right corner of the front cover cut off which I thought meant the passport was invalid???

Passport was already invalid with the missing / torn out page. So Thai immigration probably just cut the corner off in order to make it clear to everybody. Normal procedure, even though Swiss immigration would punch two holes through the passport...

Thai immigration would not deface another countries passport, it may in fact be illegal.....Swiss immigration would only punch holes through a Swiss passport not another nations passport.....A passport does not belong to an indiviudal, it belongs to a goverment of specific country

Edited October 26, 2011 by Soutpeel

[Swiss1960]

Sounds like a terrible ordeal.

One oddity is that the picture that the DM claim is her passport has the top right corner of the front cover cut off which I thought meant the passport was invalid???

It does...it means the PP has been cancelled/invalid...so if she attempted to enter Thailand on a cancelled passport, one could well understand why immigration pulled her in..

The picture shows indeed her passport was invalid and the missing pages are another reason why the passport was invalid. It serves as a warning not to travel with a damaged passport.

One wanders why her passport was made invalid and by who, and how comes the passport pages where missing. There might be more to this and by the look of her passport, immigration was right t want to question her. That would have happend in any country.

The Passport became invalid / void the second a page was torn out / missing! So this woman tried to enter Thailand illegally! It is only fair to assume that the Thai immigration officer thereafter cut off the corner of the passport to make it fully clear to every other immigration officer that this passport is not valid anymore. Standard procedure all over the world (as far as invalidation of the passport is concerned).

[dean999]

She must of had a hard paper round when she was younger. She looks a lot older than 22.

Mummy and daddy must of gone running to the papers...... Are little princess has been treated so badly. Bla, Bla, Bla.

Next story.

[Boater]

somthing doesnt add up here at all, also they are not mentioning which page was missing, her previous thai stamps?

also

Despite the best efforts of her family to get her out, Ms Salt was told that she would be deported back to Indonesia and jailed there for at least two weeks.

There her family would be expected to pay for a translator and local lawyer.

why would they fly her back there, plus why would she be locked up in that country????? .....

[bkkjames]

Daily mail has a real boner for all things thailand these days.

[Swiss1960]

Sounds like a terrible ordeal.

One oddity is that the picture that the DM claim is her passport has the top right corner of the front cover cut off which I thought meant the passport was invalid???

Passport was already invalid with the missing / torn out page. So Thai immigration probably just cut the corner off in order to make it clear to everybody. Normal procedure, even though Swiss immigration would punch two holes through the passport...

Thai immigration would not deface another countries passport, it may in fact be illegal.....Swiss immigration would only punch holes through a Swiss passport not another nations passport.....A passport does not belong to an indiviudal, it belongs to a goverment of specific country

What you say is NOT true! Whatever countries immigration office finds an invalid / faked passport, it is their job to make sure that this invalid passport can not be used anymore. Therefore the invalidation by punching holes / cutting off edges or just not returning the passport anymore is standard international procedure!

[Swiss1960]

Despite the best efforts of her family to get her out, Ms Salt was told that she would be deported back to Indonesia and jailed there for at least two weeks.

There her family would be expected to pay for a translator and local lawyer.

why would they fly her back there, plus why would she be locked up in that country????? .....

Every airline is responsible to make sure that the documents of their passengers are complete and in order. International agreements (look at IATA) clearly state that immigration has the right to reject a persons entry into their country and the airline flying the passenger in must take the passenger back to the country of origin (in this case it would have been Indonesia).

Whether she would have been jailed there or not would have been up to the Indonesian authorities, but Indonesia might not have let her enter the country again and might have kept her inside the airport until the British government would have given her a new / emergency passport.

So actually, the fact that the Thai authorities let her fly to London (and Britisch Airways did take her on Board) is an exception to standard procedures... she should be happy about that

[Soutpeel]

Sounds like a terrible ordeal.

One oddity is that the picture that the DM claim is her passport has the top right corner of the front cover cut off which I thought meant the passport was invalid???

Passport was already invalid with the missing / torn out page. So Thai immigration probably just cut the corner off in order to make it clear to everybody. Normal procedure, even though Swiss immigration would punch two holes through the passport...

Thai immigration would not deface another countries passport, it may in fact be illegal.....Swiss immigration would only punch holes through a Swiss passport not another nations passport.....A passport does not belong to an indiviudal, it belongs to a goverment of specific country

What you say is NOT true! Whatever countries immigration office finds an invalid / faked passport, it is their job to make sure that this invalid passport can not be used anymore. Therefore the invalidation by punching holes / cutting off edges or just not returning the passport anymore is standard international procedure!

I will state again Thai immigration will not cut the corner off another countries passport....I will refer you to note 6 in a British passport...I quote....."this passport remains the property of her majestys goverment in the United kingdom and........blah blah...It should not be tampered with......"

Therefore this is a legal goverment document and Thai immigration has absolutely no legal right to tamper with said document....

[TerryLH]

"It is only fair to assume that the Thai immigration officer thereafter cut off the corner of the passport to make it fully clear to every other immigration officer that this passport is not valid anymore."

What makes assuming something you have no knowledge about fair?

"Standard procedure all over the world (as far as invalidation of the passport is concerned)."

By the persons government, not by another country.

Another thing mentioned is that she had to 'bribe' someone for something to eat. It also said that they gave her something, but she didn't like/want it.

It sounds like, but I'm not assuming, that since she didn't like what they offered, she bought something she did. That's how it works in jail here.

Edited October 26, 2011 by TerryLH

[steve187]

maybe she has had a new passport issued since the incident and the old one cancelled by cutting the corner, the dates stamped into her passport look like the beginning of october

[ludditeman]

Minor criminal offenses in Thailand are sometimes punished by putting a person on a plane out and writing "do not re-admit" in their passport.

(Drunken driving, shop lifting, failing drugs tests, buying drugs)

Cutting out the marked page in your passport would not be a good idea.

Jealous lovers sometimes cut out a passport page to punish the person.

But missing pages are fairly obvious.

I'm not suggestion either of these fantasies is the reason she had a page missing.

Best to guard your passport well and replace it immediately if defaced in any way.

[Swiss1960]

Thai immigration would not deface another countries passport, it may in fact be illegal.....Swiss immigration would only punch holes through a Swiss passport not another nations passport.....A passport does not belong to an indiviudal, it belongs to a goverment of specific country

What you say is NOT true! Whatever countries immigration office finds an invalid / faked passport, it is their job to make sure that this invalid passport can not be used anymore. Therefore the invalidation by punching holes / cutting off edges or just not returning the passport anymore is standard international procedure!

I will state again Thai immigration will not cut the corner off another countries passport....I will refer you to note 6 in a British passport...I quote....."this passport remains the property of her majestys goverment in the United kingdom and........blah blah...It should not be tampered with......"

Therefore this is a legal goverment document and Thai immigration has absolutely no legal right to tamper with said document....

Again you are wrong. As the passport had a missing page, it obviously was already tampered with. For the Thai immigration, this passport is invalid. The Swiss passport clearly states that fact. Now an invalid, tampered, maybe even fake passport (who knows) is still property of the Britisch government, BUT... and that is important... NO immigration authority will just tell you "sorry, your passport is not valid, here you have it back, please try another country...."

If it would be about an invalid or missing Visa, then I agree with you that invalidating the passport would be illegal by the Thai authorities. BUT again, they did "confiscate" an already illegal and invalidated passport (invalidated through the missing page) and therefore, cutting off the corner just makes it more obvious for the next immigration officer that might be confronted with that passport.

Or shorter: I is not illegal to cut off the corner of an illegal / invalidated passport...

[DP25]

Well what are the odds, this woman just happens to be an aspiring actress!

http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/view.php?uid=263162

And it appears that 22 is not her actual age but her 'playing age'

[Boater]

Well what are the odds, this woman just happens to be an aspiring actress!

http://www.castingca....php?uid=263162

And it appears that 22 is not her actual age but her 'playing age'

nice find

[theblether]

Maybe I'm getting old but !!

I can't see any mention in the article which says that the Thai authorities snipped her passport????

I do know for a fact ( as it involved me ), the last time I replaced my passport in person the UK official asked me if I would like to keep my old passport as a souvenir, I said yes, and they snipped the front page exactly the same way as the photo shows on the article

You can also guarantee that Emirates, ( who I fly with all the time ) will have cleared her arrival with the UK Borders Agency prior to her departure, they will not have exposed themselves to a fine in the UK for allowing someone to knowingly fly with an invalid passport.

Maybe it was snipped by UKBA as soon as she arrived back in the country??? In fact, I would be amazed if the UKBA did not snip the passport when she arrived.

The rest of the article is pathetic, seriously pathetic. The Daily Mail is the UK equivalent of Fox News. The headline should really read " Rotten Johnny Foreigner Interferes with Beautiful English Rose"

[tailspin]

something definitely amiss with the story....I am thinking future realtiy show star purposely defacing passport to have the "real" Thai jail experience.....kudos to Thai officials for job well done, and watch out for alot more of these wannabes in the future

[smokie36]

A few years ago I decided to take a swim from a boat over to the flip flop pharmacy in Thong Nai Pan with my passport in my back pocket. When I got to Malaysia the following week for my Visa Run the Immigration official pulled me aside as the entry stamp was barely legible.

He asked me what had happened and told me in no uncertain terms what the outcome would have been had he not scrutinised it with a magnifying glass and been able to read it.

Look after your passport is the message here regardless of the country you are visiting...I don't see this as Thailand specific.

Edit: sp

Edited October 26, 2011 by smokie36

[Beetlejuice]

Definitely something not right here.

A trip to Indonesia, dodgy passport and unsustainable details.

Her statement that.she was treated like a criminal is untrue, but rather as a suspect criminal in which the police were quite within their rights to do so.

Who knows? She could be into drug dealing, prostitution or anything.

This woman should consider herself lucky that she was only detained for 30 hours. As a matter of fact the Thai authorities had every right to hold her until she could provide reasonable proof that her passport was valid and her reasons for staying in Thailand.

Out of interest, Francesca Salt quotes on her website that she is willing to perform nude professionally. So we are not dealing with some do gooder missionary here, although I wouldn`t mind being locked up with her for 30 hours for an audition.

Edited October 26, 2011 by Beetlejuice

[roamer]

Definitely something not right here.

A trip to Indonesia, dodgy passport and unsustainable details.

Her statement that.she was treated like a criminal is untrue, but rather as a suspect criminal in which the police were quite within their rights to do so.

Who knows? She could be into drug dealing, prostitution or anything.

This woman should consider herself lucky that she was only detained for 30 hours. As a matter of fact the Thai authorities had every right to hold her until she could provide reasonable proof that her passport was valid and her reasons for staying in Thailand.

Out of interest, Francesca Salt quotes on her website that she is willing to perform nude professionally. So we are not dealing with some do gooder missionary here, although I wouldn`t mind being locked up with her for 30 hours for an audition.

You really do talk such b***ocks at times. She has a degree in performance art from Leeds University. It's not her website but a site on which actors list themselves. You find something wrong with her listing the fact that she is prepared to appear nude "professionally" ? From that you surmise she could be into drug dealing or prostituion, "no do gooder missionary" , not that she has claimed to be. Its people like you that should be detained, great if you were detained for 30 hours, days, months whatever.

[Moonrakers]

Boater

You're obsession with the Daily Mail is beginning to grow on me.

[Moonrakers]

Definitely something not right here.

A trip to Indonesia, dodgy passport and unsustainable details.

Her statement that.she was treated like a criminal is untrue, but rather as a suspect criminal in which the police were quite within their rights to do so.

Who knows? She could be into drug dealing, prostitution or anything.

This woman should consider herself lucky that she was only detained for 30 hours. As a matter of fact the Thai authorities had every right to hold her until she could provide reasonable proof that her passport was valid and her reasons for staying in Thailand.

Out of interest, Francesca Salt quotes on her website that she is willing to perform nude professionally. So we are not dealing with some do gooder missionary here, although I wouldn`t mind being locked up with her for 30 hours for an audition.

You really do talk such b***ocks at times. She has a degree in performance art from Leeds University. It's not her website but a site on which actors list themselves. You find something wrong with her listing the fact that she is prepared to appear nude "professionally" ? From that you surmise she could be into drug dealing or prostituion, "no do gooder missionary" , not that she has claimed to be. Its people like you that should be detained, great if you were detained for 30 hours, days, months whatever.

See

Wittingly or otherwise Boater has provoked the quoted reply.

Comedy gold.

[Beetlejuice]

Definitely something not right here.

A trip to Indonesia, dodgy passport and unsustainable details.

Her statement that.she was treated like a criminal is untrue, but rather as a suspect criminal in which the police were quite within their rights to do so.

Who knows? She could be into drug dealing, prostitution or anything.

This is why the police detained her. True or not?

This woman should consider herself lucky that she was only detained for 30 hours. As a matter of fact the Thai authorities had every right to hold her until she could provide reasonable proof that her passport was valid and her reasons for staying in Thailand.

Out of interest, Francesca Salt quotes on her website that she is willing to perform nude professionally. So we are not dealing with some do gooder missionary here, although I wouldn`t mind being locked up with her for 30 hours for an audition.

You really do talk such b***ocks at times. She has a degree in performance art from Leeds University. It's not her website but a site on which actors list themselves. You find something wrong with her listing the fact that she is prepared to appear nude "professionally" ? From that you surmise she could be into drug dealing or prostituion, "no do gooder missionary" , not that she has claimed to be. Its people like you that should be detained, great if you were detained for 30 hours, days, months whatever.

Ok, my statement again, with additions:

A trip to Indonesia, dodgy passport and unsustainable details.

Fact or fiction?

Her statement that.she was treated like a criminal is untrue, but rather as a suspect criminal in which the police were quite within their rights to do so.

Fact or fiction?

Who knows? She could be into drug dealing, prostitution or anything.

This is why the police detained her.

Possible or not?

This woman should consider herself lucky that she was only detained for 30 hours. As a matter of fact the Thai authorities had every right to hold her until she could provide reasonable proof that her passport was valid and her reasons for staying in Thailand.

True or not?

Out of interest, Francesca Salt quotes on her website that she is willing to perform nude professionally. So we are not dealing with some do gooder missionary here, although I wouldn`t mind being locked up with her for 30 hours for an audition.

Did not say I find anything wrong with this. Only saying that she is no goody two shoes. So what`s wrong with that?

Edited October 26, 2011 by Beetlejuice

[Moonrakers]

roamer.....

Think about it:

The Daily Mail, and out of work actress......................................

Edited October 26, 2011 by Moonrakers