Immigration ban leaves Phuket expat knife attack victim in exile

[Psimbo]

Clear case of Thai against Farang, Farang always lose.

Only in your mind. Things are not always ideal but this has not been the norm for ages now.

[mcfish]

ALL expats need and exit plan, or Plan B, for Thailand.

We all have no right to be here, except for a little sticker in our passports.

agree with you. dont become grounded here. we are visitors. keep life simple. if you have kids and there are some problems first step is getting sole custody. dont buy anything you arent prepared to walk away from. things can go very bad here very quickly and our guest privileges can be revoked. seems this guy has had a number of years to sort this out.i am preparing to leave thailand, selling property, pickup and a business takes a long time and i am glad to not be doing it under duress.

I am also trying to divest myself of Thailand...takes a lot longer to sell here than to buy...if I had to do it over again, I'd keep things much more simple...I simply didn't factor in the determined stupidity of Thais...I think things will get worse here for Thais, which means there must be a scapegoat, and I believe it will be farangs...perhaps things won't change too much in terms of policy and laws...but I think attitudes of most people toward farangs will become more negative..

why? If you think something you should also give reasoning.

[hawker9000]

It would appear that the woman next door filed a complaint with the police, perhaps saying that she feared that he would attack her again or such like, the original fight did occur on her property, the cops then forwarded the complaint to the immigration and bingo, blacklisted.

after he was attacked by a neighbour with a knife

They make it sound like he was the victim

Did you follow the Phuketnews link and read what actually happened? He pretty much is.

[rebelplatoon]

Am I missing something...? He was attacked and the victim. But he was found guilty and fined?

[NamKangMan]

ALL expats need and exit plan, or Plan B, for Thailand.

We all have no right to be here, except for a little sticker in our passports.

agree with you. dont become grounded here. we are visitors. keep life simple. if you have kids and there are some problems first step is getting sole custody. dont buy anything you arent prepared to walk away from. things can go very bad here very quickly and our guest privileges can be revoked. seems this guy has had a number of years to sort this out.i am preparing to leave thailand, selling property, pickup and a business takes a long time and i am glad to not be doing it under duress.

I am also trying to divest myself of Thailand...takes a lot longer to sell here than to buy...if I had to do it over again, I'd keep things much more simple...I simply didn't factor in the determined stupidity of Thais...I think things will get worse here for Thais, which means there must be a scapegoat, and I believe it will be farangs...perhaps things won't change too much in terms of policy and laws...but I think attitudes of most people toward farangs will become more negative..

A lot of countries use immigrants as scapegoats for all their woes,including pollies.Why would Thailand be any different.It is time we walked in other peoples shoes and learn.

I think you will find countries using migrants as scapegoats focus on refugees, particularly, economic refugees.

Whilst there are many undesirables living in Thailand, the vast majority of foreigners living here inject money into the economy, yet, the Thai authorities continue to make it harder and harder for them to do so.

[NamKangMan]

In true Thai style, why don't they create a new visa class for these people and make more money.

They could call it "The Bad Guys Visa" and charge 20,000 baht for it for 3 months, and the foreigner has to report to a police station every week, which has a 300 baht fee.

[gandalf12]

I must be missing something. The article says "...an incident in which he was attacked by a woman with a knife". He does not appear to have attacked anyone but was the attacked. If this is correct what was he found guilty of?

[LPCustom69]

He should be permitted to get his children, and leave.

[hawker9000]

I must be missing something. The article says "...an incident in which he was attacked by a woman with a knife". He does not appear to have attacked anyone but was the attacked. If this is correct what was he found guilty of?

...of defending himself, of course. TIT and he's a farang. What would you expect?

[Borzandy]

He was found guilty in a Thai court. No surprise that he has been denied entry to Thailand. Would be the same in any country he was found guilty of a crime.

Tough situation for his Thai family ...

How can you trust a Thai court ?

[LivinginKata]

He was found guilty in a Thai court. No surprise that he has been denied entry to Thailand. Would be the same in any country he was found guilty of a crime.

Tough situation for his Thai family ...

How can you trust a Thai court ?

Fact of the matter is that so called justice can and will be distorted with loads of money - no matter the country - even the USA ....

[luckyman]

He was found guilty in a Thai court. No surprise that he has been denied entry to Thailand. Would be the same in any country he was found guilty of a crime.

Tough situation for his Thai family ...

that is utter nonsense. I don' think any European country would have barred him for a minor offence

They would if he didnot have permanent residency visa. Read the actual news of today, the suicide bomber in Germany was denied a permit to stay and was to be deported for a few criminal offences...

[Khon Kaen Dave]

AHHH! Such compassion from the Ferang brotherhood.i think a lot of tv op's are slowly becoming Thai.

[gdgbb]

He was found guilty in a Thai court. No surprise that he has been denied entry to Thailand. Would be the same in any country he was found guilty of a crime.

Tough situation for his Thai family ...

There are tens, no hundreds, of thousands of Thais living in various western countries around the world. Do you REALLY believe that they are automatically deported when found guilty of a crime?

Or barred from re-entry?

Of course that doesn't necessarily happen, but neither did it happen to this man. He was denied entry on trying to re-enter after he had left the country, seven years after the offence he committed, he was not deported.

Exactly the same thing could happen to a Thai with a conviction trying to get a visa to enter many other countries and rightly so.

[gdgbb]

Why are some people so deeply analysing the details of the 7 year old case that he was found guilty of? It doesn't matter now, it's irrelevant to his current situation which is that he has a conviction and so far Immigration do not want him back.

[cockatoowho]

Immigration officers will be xxxxxing their jeans knowing they are causing a farang so much hardship and pain.

I was shocked to read this, but you have a very one sided opinion of immigration officers. In many years I have not met one who was unkind or unjust to me or did not do their duty. One time a female officer gave me a wrong stamp 4 weeks instead of 3 months. I went back after finding out and she imidiately fixed it. I think there are many decent people among them.

In this case it is not even the immigration's fault but the fault of a very unjust law or of an inappropriate interpretation of the law. Or may be of the court - they should have known better - giving the victim AND HIS CHILDREN a much harder penalty than the offender.

I would not blame him if he leaves the country with his children as soon as he can come in and then make this known all over the world - may be write a book. Of course then they never will let him in again and he probably won't care. May be it would help others.

It is good to learn that he has help from Thai officials as well. He should thank them and if he leaves the country for good he owes an apology to them.

Sorry to burst your bubble, I will rephrase my comment just for you. Thais will be xxxxxing their jeans knowing they are causing a farang so much hardship and pain.

[D3030]

It would appear that the woman next door filed a complaint with the police, perhaps saying that she feared that he would attack her again or such like, the original fight did occur on her property, the cops then forwarded the complaint to the immigration and bingo, blacklisted.

after he was attacked by a neighbour with a knife

They make it sound like he was the victim

He would not have been a victim, if he just called the police or ignored his drunk neighbor..

Should he have been blacklisted?

No!

Did the Immigration Officer have the entire incident report? or just that this man was convicted?

The IO did his job.. Can't blame him.

Now, a can of worms is opened..

Are all "Bad" Farangs, that has a child with a Thai, will not be banned?

[D3030]

Immigration officers will be xxxxxing their jeans knowing they are causing a farang so much hardship and pain.

I was shocked to read this, but you have a very one sided opinion of immigration officers. In many years I have not met one who was unkind or unjust to me or did not do their duty. One time a female officer gave me a wrong stamp 4 weeks instead of 3 months. I went back after finding out and she imidiately fixed it. I think there are many decent people among them.

In this case it is not even the immigration's fault but the fault of a very unjust law or of an inappropriate interpretation of the law. Or may be of the court - they should have known better - giving the victim AND HIS CHILDREN a much harder penalty than the offender.

I would not blame him if he leaves the country with his children as soon as he can come in and then make this known all over the world - may be write a book. Of course then they never will let him in again and he probably won't care. May be it would help others.

It is good to learn that he has help from Thai officials as well. He should thank them and if he leaves the country for good he owes an apology to them.

Sorry to burst your bubble, I will rephrase my comment just for you. Thais will be xxxxxing their jeans knowing they are causing a farang so much hardship and pain.

Send a private message, if it's meant for just one person.

I highly doubt all IOs will be doing whatever in their jeans, when just "one" IO -- in this situation, did what he or she thought, was the right thing to do..

Another Thai hater, implying all Thais, think as one..

[D3030]

Why are some people so deeply analysing the details of the 7 year old case that he was found guilty of? It doesn't matter now, it's irrelevant to his current situation which is that he has a conviction and so far Immigration do not want him back.

It's called discretion..

Maybe he jad

[dhream]

...no justice for foreigners = no human rights....

...he was the victim.....

...time for the foreign governments and embassies to speak up....

As if any government is going to jeapordise billions in trade to molly coddle a few nomads. Or even many nomads.

Australia for one takes departing Aussies personally.

Bottom line is if you move anywhere. You're agreeing to deal with the consequences. Governments care about their interests not ours. How naive can you be determined to stay in this age of instant self education?

[Dumbastheycome]

He was found guilty in a Thai court. No surprise that he has been denied entry to Thailand. Would be the same in any country he was found guilty of a crime.

Tough situation for his Thai family ...

There are tens, no hundreds, of thousands of Thais living in various western countries around the world. Do you REALLY believe that they are automatically deported when found guilty of a crime?

Or barred from re-entry?

If they were convicted on a charge of assault with a weapon and causing bodily harm in the process of also committing trespass I am sure it would raise flags about entry/ re entry if those details came up on files. Deportation would be in accordance with degree of criminality.

I see no mention of deportation which indicates he left without a re entry permit on any then current extension or visa.

Any application for a new visa would belikely only granted in accordance with a non known criminal conviction. His court ruling was light but was neverthe less a criminal conviction. Acting on base records Immigration rejected his request. Base records do not contain nice nicey details of presumed justifications of his actions or the leniency in his conviction nor the apparent support from the PPO.

Best of luck to him in his efforts to gain re entry but perhaps with a caution to get his sh.t together rather than plead victim of any injustice especially when it involves his dependant children.

He has a criminal conviction on record and for whatever reason he exited Thailand without confirming re entry permission.

[chill]

I knew two friends who were accused of sexual harassment of a Thai lady. I believe they were just flirting with her, but she was unhappy about it and for local political reasons the two farang were charged with physical sexual harassment. When they got to court the judge advised them to plead guilty, pay a 1000 baht fine and drop everything otherwise their costs would spiral with the cost of lawyers if the case continued. The judge implied that everything would go away if they did that. Well, one decided to admit guilt and pay the THB 1000.- and get on with his life, and the other, against everyone's advice, decided he was not guilty and would fight the case. Eventually he won. And yes, you guessed it, the one who pleaded guilty was refused re-entry to Thailand next time he went off on holiday. He was a convicted criminal.

A salutory lesson to us all.

[NamKangMan]

I knew two friends who were accused of sexual harassment of a Thai lady. I believe they were just flirting with her, but she was unhappy about it and for local political reasons the two farang were charged with physical sexual harassment. When they got to court the judge advised them to plead guilty, pay a 1000 baht fine and drop everything otherwise their costs would spiral with the cost of lawyers if the case continued. The judge implied that everything would go away if they did that. Well, one decided to admit guilt and pay the THB 1000.- and get on with his life, and the other, against everyone's advice, decided he was not guilty and would fight the case. Eventually he won. And yes, you guessed it, the one who pleaded guilty was refused re-entry to Thailand next time he went off on holiday. He was a convicted criminal.

A salutory lesson to us all.

"And yes, you guessed it, the one who pleaded guilty was refused re-entry to Thailand next time he went off on holiday." - EVERYONE needs and exit strategy, or Plan B, for Thailand.

[useronthenet]

As I have so often pointed out in the past, foreigners have zero footprint in Thailand regardless whether they are married, have kids, got residency, bought a property, running a business. They are farang, and the Thai authorities can do as they please so it seems.