Suvarnabhumi to open special airport court for foreigners on Monday

[webfact]

Suvarnabhumi to open special airport court for foreigners on Monday
By Coconuts Bangkok



BANGKOK: -- In yet another example of how overrun this country is with tourists, Suvarnabhumi airport will open a new court where foreigners can address any legal issues that take place at the airport.

The Airports of Thailand Plc (AOT) approved the establishment of the court Tuesday to deal with the average 250 cases that take place at the airport daily.

It will be the first court of its kind in the country.

The idea behind the court is to reduce crimes at the airport and facilitate legal proceedings. The court will also be flexible so if aggrieved foreigners wanted to leave the country early they could schedule their cases appropriately. [read more...]

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2013/09/18/suvarnabhumi-open-special-airport-court-monday


-- Coconuts Bangkok 2013-09-18

[rkidlad]

Addressing to the court how I've been ripped off before I'm due to depart. Can't wait.

[theblether]

250 crimes per day at the airport? Wow,

Anything that's going to put pressure on these crooks and scammers has to be welcome. Big Like from me.

oops, just read the full article, someone can't do arithmetic.

Edited September 18, 2013 by theblether

[NongKhaiKid]

Addressing to the court how I've been ripped off before I'm due to depart. Can't wait.

Just how many of these cases will require an adjournment until long after the complainant is out of the country ?

[jmccarty]

250 a day changed to 1,980 total from January to August. Which is it? 60,000 or 1,980?

[chooka]

How many other airports around the world have built in courts? What sort of message would this send to tourists on arrival apart from Thailand must be a lawless society. Hardly a way to make them feel safe and secure.

They will need to post prominent signage for tourists to see indicating where the courthouse is situated in the building and allow easy access to both arriving and departing tourists. Maybe the stewards can hand out leaflets and maps on the plane when they hand out the arrival cards.

Dear valued tourist, if your are mugged, assaulted, raped or simply pick pocketed in our world class facility please feel free to attend our courthouse where a settlement to the benefit of all parties can be negotiated. (let's say 50/50 split for you and your assailant)

[impulse]

Could be 240 overstays and a few pickpockets?

The article could be correct with both numbers.

[worgeordie]

Whats this for KingPower shop lifters, baggage handling riflers,

arrival door scammers and con men, errant taxi drivers,if the

airport was policed properly and efficiently, like say Changi

or most other airports in the civilized world.there would be no

need for a court, but as usual Thailand is trying to fix things

arse first.

regards Worgeordie

[Tomtomtom69]

Whats this for KingPower shop lifters, baggage handling riflers,

arrival door scammers and con men, errant taxi drivers,if the

airport was policed properly and efficiently, like say Changi

or most other airports in the civilized world.there would be no

need for a court, but as usual Thailand is trying to fix things

arse first.

regards Worgeordie

How many foreign baggage handlers and taxi drivers are there working at Surarnabhumi?

Well none as those jobs are reserved for Thais.

[webfact]

Courtroom for aggrieved foreigners opens on Monday in Bangkok

BANGKOK: Suvarnabhumi airport's courtroom for foreign plaintiffs will open on Monday.

The Airports of Thailand Plc (AOT) approved the establishment of the court Tuesday.

The court will be a branch of the Samut Prakan provincial court and will handle cases of crimes against foreigners at the airport.

It will be the first court of its kind in the country.

AOT chairman Sita Divari said his authority had donated the space for the court and also provided it with office equipment and a video conference system to connect to Samut Prakan provincial court, where judges can consider cases remotely.

The airport court should improve the tourism image of the country, reduce crimes at the airport and facilitate justice, Sqd Ldr Sita said.

He added that the court will be flexible if aggrieved foreigners wanted to leave the country early and would schedule their cases appropriately.

Sqd Ldr Sita also plans to establish similar courts at Don Mueang and Phuket airports.

Acting AOT president Pongsak Semsan said that from January to August this year, 1,980 crimes were reported at Suvarnabhumi airport, involving 1,047 suspects. Most of these were petty crimes.

Suvarnabhumi director Raweewan Netarakavesana said the courtroom, which measures 46 sq m, replaces a reception room on the third floor of the passenger terminal.

It will later be moved to a permanent location on the sixth floor of the airport's car park building, where it will have more space, Ms Raweewan said.


-- Phuket News 2013-09-18

[lee b]

A nice way to end your holiday

[lungmi]

Two years ago I had a Star Alliance flight to Thailand. Booked by Lufthansa operated by Thai Airways.

In Chiang Mai I had two boarding cards .At Swampy airport I showed my boarding card for Frankfurt to

service stuff asking for the gate. The gate was wrong, they sent me to another gate -Airplane started already.

I went back to the stuff who gave me the wrong information. Big problem for them (I had silver card for Thai Airways.)

They arranged to have a flight by Lufthansa in business class two hours later.

And my baggage? They ask my home address.

I had my baggage at home, no customs check.

If the service is like this, I can accept.

But my case is more an exception than reality.

A Court can be useful, but I have some doubts.

Edited September 18, 2013 by lungmi

[chooka]

Two years ago I had a Star Alliance flight to Thailand. Booked by Lufthansa operated by Thai Airways.

In Chiang Mai I had two boarding cards .At Swampy airport I showed my boarding card for Frankfurt to

service stuff asking for the gate. The gate was wrong, they sent me to another gate -Airplane started already.

I went back to the stuff who gave me the wrong information. Big problem for them (I had silver card for Thai Airways.)

They arranged to have a flight by Lufthansa in business class two hours later.

And my baggage? They ask my home address.

I had my baggage at home, no customs check.

If the service is like this, I can accept.

But my case is more an exception than reality.

A Court can be useful, but I have some doubts.

Pretty much the same thing happened to me on a flight to Melbourne, got home and my luggage was there.

[bigbamboo]

And for those who are found guilty there will be shortly be a Swampy Hilton right next door.

It's all a bit twilight zone though. Are those judges real or just ghostly apparitions? Is this really happening to me on holiday in the Land of Smiles or is it just a bad dream? And surely there can't be that many King Power staff in the whole world let alone in one airport?......

[Thai at Heart]

What type of case needs to be judged and settled like this?

A rip off taxi? Overstay? Improve the image? It's giving me the heebie jeebies just thinking about what type of service this court might provide....

[bdru31]

Interesting wording in the article:

In yet another example of how overrun this country is with tourists,

The problem isn't that the country is overrun with tourists. The problem is that people at the airport insist on scamming them.

Why not take care of that problem instead of going through all this trouble creating a separate court? While this seems like a move in the right direction, nobody wants to get caught up in court on their holiday just because the authorities couldn't do their job and limit robbery at the airport...

I could also see this becoming a tool for getting more money out of farang, but hopefully I'm being overly-cynical.

Edited September 18, 2013 by bdru31

[lisu]

"In yet another example of how overrun this country is with tourists"

Is it just me, or does that opening sentence seem a little belligerent?

[Zappo]

Interesting wording in the article:

In yet another example of how overrun this country is with tourists,

The problem isn't that the country is overrun with tourists. The problem is that people at the airport insist on scamming them.

Why not take care of that problem instead of going through all this trouble creating a separate court? While this seems like a move in the right direction, nobody wants to get caught up in court on their holiday just because the authorities couldn't do their job and limit robbery at the airport...

I could also see this becoming a tool for getting more money out of farang, but hopefully I'm being overly-cynical.

Right. It is always wrong to try to fix the symptoms. Burn out the cancer and there will be no symptoms and no need for a court.

[Baerboxer]

"In yet another example of how overrun this country is with tourists"

Is it just me, or does that opening sentence seem a little belligerent?

No it's not just you. Implication is all these pesky tourists running round causing problems. Better if they just got scammed at the airport, made a donation and sent home.

It's the fault of the tourists - bring lots of money, act like they're on holiday ( ) and tempt poor Thai people to scam them.

[circusman]

Two years ago I had a Star Alliance flight to Thailand. Booked by Lufthansa operated by Thai Airways.

In Chiang Mai I had two boarding cards .At Swampy airport I showed my boarding card for Frankfurt to

service stuff asking for the gate. The gate was wrong, they sent me to another gate -Airplane started already.

I went back to the stuff who gave me the wrong information. Big problem for them (I had silver card for Thai Airways.)

They arranged to have a flight by Lufthansa in business class two hours later.

And my baggage? They ask my home address.

I had my baggage at home, no customs check.

If the service is like this, I can accept.

But my case is more an exception than reality.

A Court can be useful, but I have some doubts.

What STUFF are you talking about?

[TackyToo]

I would not be surprised if the honorable judge is a former manager of King Duty free, the prosecutor a high ranking airport police and the standard witness for hire a Bangladeshi or Srilankan named “Tony”

[fakename]

Will there be any investigation to these cases, or will the judge just say "guilty, pay the 1000k at the counter"!

[technologybytes]

Technically an overstay is a crime, that would explain the 250 crimes per day as it would not surprise me if there were 250 overstays per day, in fact I'd expect the number to be higher.

The only reason a court would be at the airport is to deal with offenders by way of fine prior to being allowed on a plane, so it sounds like they are planning to get a bit tougher with overstayers.

Any other crime would need to be processed by the police before making it to court, wouldn't it?

[chooka]

There is no mention of what language these "TOURIST" Courts will be conducted in. If they are primarily for Tourists who normally do not speak a word of Thai they would be pointless if the proceeding were conducted in Thai. Will all the documents that the tourist has to sign be in Thai? The tourist is just told to sign a thai language document he/she has no idea what is contained in the print exonerating the offender of all wrong doing then a speedy resolution is completed. For this to work and instill confidence in the tourist then everything would have to be in their language. written and oral.

[bangkokstick]

Next one is a special court for problems with bargirls ? Walking street or patpong ?

[bigbamboo]

There is no mention of what language these "TOURIST" Courts will be conducted in. If they are primarily for Tourists who normally do not speak a word of Thai they would be pointless if the proceeding were conducted in Thai. Will all the documents that the tourist has to sign be in Thai? The tourist is just told to sign a thai language document he/she has no idea what is contained in the print exonerating the offender of all wrong doing then a speedy resolution is completed. For this to work and instill confidence in the tourist then everything would have to be in their language. written and oral.

Shouldn't be a problem. If you remember that Thailand's senior DPM at the time Chalerm Yoobungme (apologies for spelling) announced that the police in tourist areas would be trained to be bi-lingual in assorted languages three months. That was over a year ago so I guess they must be fairly proficient by now.

[shaurene]

How many other airports around the world have built in courts? What sort of message would this send to tourists on arrival apart from Thailand must be a lawless society. Hardly a way to make them feel safe and secure.

They will need to post prominent signage for tourists to see indicating where the courthouse is situated in the building and allow easy access to both arriving and departing tourists. Maybe the stewards can hand out leaflets and maps on the plane when they hand out the arrival cards.

Dear valued tourist, if your are mugged, assaulted, raped or simply pick pocketed in our world class facility please feel free to attend our courthouse where a settlement to the benefit of all parties can be negotiated. (let's say 50/50 split for you and your assailant)

What about the small stuff like ordered at Burger King double burger with cheese and chicken nib lets full meal with chips and drink 275bt and 235bt total came to 545 I paid and sat down with the misses and noticed that the chips and drink were bigger than normal I looked at the receipt and see 70bt for large up, went back and asked what this was for she said large up grade I said I did not ask for that, she gave me the 70bt back, when we finished we left half the chips and half the drink and I took it back and said here is you large part back, she smiled.

[RubbaJohnny]

The car park Staff and Yeller shirts who occupied the airport wont all fit,perhaps use the who;e compound and allow foreigners to use Dumb Mong in pease

[Bluespunk]

"In yet another example of how overrun this country is with tourists"

Well, F#%¥ you too!

[stoli]

How many other airports around the world have built in courts? What sort of message would this send to tourists on arrival apart from Thailand must be a lawless society. Hardly a way to make them feel safe and secure.

They will need to post prominent signage for tourists to see indicating where the courthouse is situated in the building and allow easy access to both arriving and departing tourists. Maybe the stewards can hand out leaflets and maps on the plane when they hand out the arrival cards.

Dear valued tourist, if your are mugged, assaulted, raped or simply pick pocketed in our world class facility please feel free to attend our courthouse where a settlement to the benefit of all parties can be negotiated. (let's say 50/50 split for you and your assailant)

Every airport in the world has daily crimes. Why do you think your home airport is special and does not have them? I am glad to see Thailand trying to help the tourist. Well done.