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BANGKOK (Pattaya People's News) – When flood waters threatened to engulf *Tom Wilson's home close to the Thai capital Bangkok, he decided it was time to escape and avoid the worst flooding the country has seen in half a century.

An English teacher from Manchester, the 52-year-old made plans to travel to Pattaya and stay with some strangers in the bustling town on the eastern coast of Thailand, which has become the main gateway for English teachers to escape flooding in Bangkok.

Tom Wilson almost didn't make it. His journey was punctuated by intimidation, extortion and physical abuse by officials and his teaching agency broker who demanded money for his release from the staff room along with five other English teachers.

"We'd heard of extortion and threats faced by English teachers before we left but we couldn't stay in Bangkok," said Tom Michael Wilson, who declined to give his real name, told Pattaya People News by phone from Pretty Boy Bar in Boyz Town, Walking Street.

“We also know we might get deported if we are arrested but we thought at least we wouldn't have to prepare any more lesson plans, or make up false grades on test papers," he added.

Thailand is battling to deal with flooding that has killed more than 500 crocodiles and disrupted the lives of 2.45 million others. The disaster is the first big opportunity to cash in for the Prime Minister's sister Yingluck Shinwatra, who pretended to take over this year.

Yet the government has already faced criticism for ignoring English teachers caught up in the disaster.

"Wor skool's closed man! We jus wanna naa when to gan back to werk," said Alan Armstrong from Byker in Newcastle.

Many English teachers are in Thailand illegally, but even the legitimate teachers fear arrest or becoming victims of extortion by Nigerian and Mexican mafia gangs. Many of those with legal documents are not allowed to leave their place of employment and spend up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week stuck in schools teaching lessons or marking homework.

"The government has up until now made no genuine effort at a policy level to respond to the plight of English teachers," said Mandy Hell, an expert in something or other at some university somewhere in Thailand.

The government has failed to assist English teachers trapped in schools, language centres and guesthouses, despite encouraging them to travel to and stay in the only official shelter provided for English teachers in the province of Nakhon Nowhere, he said.

"This government has through its inaction opened the way for teaching agencies and other individuals to profit from the desperate plight of confused and homeless English teachers," she told Pattaya People News.

EXTORTION

Tom Wilson left Soi Khao San - an area of cheap guesthouses and wannabe hip-hop bars – with his younger brother and four female friends.

They left by bus just before midnight on Nov. 5. But the next morning, at a checkpoint before Pattaya, they were ordered to get off the bus by the police.

"The police accused us of being illegal aliens because the girls only had work permits which do not allow them to travel outside of Khao San Road," Tom Wilson said.

"I showed my counterfeit student card which is still valid and explained to them that we’re flood victims and just wanted to go to Pattaya to stay with some strangers during this time but the official would not listen."

After agreeing to pay 30,000 baht (about $1,000) each, the policeman went home, got changed and came back with his tuk-tuk and drove the group to Pattaya - where he passed them on to another policeman, who also happened to have a tuk-tuk.

TRAPPED

There they were targeted for extortion again.

The policeman demanded another 10,000 baht each (about $333) for their release, threatening to take them to the immigration office at Chaengwattana in Bangkok and then to ethnic militia camps in Afghanistan unless they paid up.

Negotiations to reduce the sum proved futile. Tom Wilson and his brother paid and were released but the policeman then told the four women they would now have to pay 500,000 baht in total.

"It was too much money and they refused," Tom Wilson said. "But the policeman didn't take them to the immigration office either. They were just trapped in the house and their smart phones and wellies were confiscated."

One girl managed to hide her phone and made contact with Tom Wilson. By then it was evening.

"It was already dark and we were worried something would happen to them so we approached the Pattaya Ajarn Association – a Pattaya based organisation helping English teachers – and went to what we thought was the real police."

Members of P.A.J. and the police confronted the dodgy policeman/tuk-tuk driver, who released the women and returned the men their money, but not before repeatedly happy-slapping the girl whose phone was used for communication.

“When the girl told us afterwards what happened, we thought such abuse shouldn't occur and went to the police again," Tom Wilson said.

But they had all but given up hope of any legal proceedings.

"I think FROC, the BMA, the teaching agency, the police and the tuk-tuk drivers negotiated something that night. We haven’t heard anything about it since,” Tom Wilson said. "All we want to do now is find a place that sells decent wellies and have a beer."

* Name has been changed to protect Tom Michael Wilson's identity.

Posted

No need to put (spoof) in the title - the correct spelling of 'extortion' is a dead give-away that it wasn't written by anyone connected with teaching English in Thailand. ph34r.gif

Posted (edited)

I thought it was amusing and a lot better reading than a lot of the old dross that we get on here, including the unoriginal vulgarity of the above Winchester retort.

Well done O/P, nice thinking with some very funny lines.

Edited by Beechboy

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