1st Reported case of overstay ban?

[Kopitiam]

Read this report in The Phuket News.  French woman caught for overstaying 103 days and got banned for 5 years.

http://www.thephuketnews.com/french-woman-deported-for-phuket-overstay-banned-for-five-years-60419.php#WE6ItQprClPeAVeV.97

[ubonjoe]

Perhaps the first in the news but there have been a couple on this forum.

It seems they may also gotten her for working illegally since it mentions the employment office.

[gilo]

I fear you may well be right UJ, she was advertising the sale of her horse school in Phuket since the summer as wanted to return to Europe and may have thus, unfortunately, become yet another individual chewed up in Phuket. Someone might just have acquired a very cheap horse riding business....

[Jonathan Fairfield]

A couple of off topics posts removed

[Rhys]

Thus blacklist for 5 years....banned from Thailand...more to this right.

[Suradit69]

Another thread running about this already:

 

[Pib]

I expect quite a few overstayers have been banned for X-amount of time since enforcement of the new overstay rules went into effect....it's just not many such bans make it into news media or forums like ThaiVisa.  

[Mansell]

My friend four days over the ninety and one year ban. He relocated to Ecuador.

[TheFishman1]

Ecuador is nice 

[Munotlaw]

Panama is the country to go. Cheap, you even can have a Panama passeport. Heaven for retirees.

Munotlaw

[mettech]

Thailand is nice for weather wise cheap for food and lodging but other  than that there is plenty of other country that beat Thailand the land of smile if you can.

[lust]

12 minutes ago, mettech said:

Thailand is nice for weather wise cheap for food and lodging but other  than that there is plenty of other country that beat Thailand the land of smile if you can.

 

Warm weather and low cost of living. Which places beat Thailand?

[TerrylSky]

Four days and one year ban? What does that say about our hosts here? Looking beyond the horizon, I see an exodus ahead to another country that is more welcoming and practical; at least half the year. I can take a hint, and I can take my money with me thank you kindly.

[MJCM]

30 minutes ago, TerrylSky said:

Four days and one year ban? What does that say about our hosts here? <snip>

 

Not Four days but four days and Ninety days so in total 94 days.

 

6 hours ago, Mansell said:

My friend four days over the ninety and one year ban. <snip>

 

 

[ThaiWai]

8 hours ago, Mansell said:

My friend four days over the ninety and one year ban. He relocated to Ecuador.

 

Penalties for overstay and 90 day reports are unrelated.  Common misconception. 

[JaiLai]

South America is interesting but considerably more dangerous than Thailand.

[lazygourmet]

What happened to the horse?!?

[rott]

8 hours ago, TheFishman1 said:

Ecuador is nice 

What about security/safety and the cost of food, drink, accommodation and er female company ??

 

If there was anywhere as good for the price then there would not be so many here.

[joeyg]

9 hours ago, TheFishman1 said:

Ecuador is nice 

Sounds like a real dream.  Pardon me I meant nightmare.  https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=19460

Crime is a severe problem in Ecuador. Crimes against U.S. citizens in 2015 ranged from petty theft to violent offenses (armed robbery, sexual assault). Pickpocketing, purse snatching, robbery, and theft of travel documents are the most common types of crimes committed against U.S. citizens.

Violent crime has significantly increased over the last few years, with American citizens being victims of crimes to include, but not limited to, homicides, armed assaults, robberies, sexual assaults, and home invasions. Armed/violent robberies can occur anywhere. Many travelers have been robbed after using ATMs or when exiting banks. 

 

Can always depend on TVBMs for solid intel.  NOT!!!

[joeyg]

7 hours ago, Munotlaw said:

Panama is the country to go. Cheap, you even can have a Panama passeport. Heaven for retirees.

Munotlaw

More solid TV intel.  I say go now... Crime statistics reflected in PNP source documents may be higher than listed due to lack of reporting. 

Areas of Concern
 
The Regional Security Office (RSO) has identified high crime areas in Panama City and throughout the country that have the potential to be relatively more dangerous. These areas tend to be lower income areas and/or areas of increased gang activity with a lower police presence. The high crime areas in/around Panama City are El Chorrillo, San Miguel, Santa Ana, Cabo Verde, Curundu, Veracruz Beach, Santa Librada, Rio Abajo, San Miguelito, Panama Viejo, and the Madden Dam Overlook. The police periodically conduct vehicle checkpoints at key intersections in the city in an effort to raise their visibility and hamper criminals’ movements through the areas. 

The entire city of Colon is a high crime area; travelers should use extreme caution when in Colon.

The Mosquito Coast (Caribbean side) and the Darien Region (Colombian border) are particularly hazardous due to their remoteness and the presence of criminal organizations.
The area referred to as the “Mosquito Coast” is an extremely remote and inaccessible area along the Panamanian north coast bounded by Boca de Rio Chiriquí to the west and Coclé Del Norte to the east and stretching inward from the coast for five kilometers. Access to the region is almost exclusively by boat/aircraft. The area may also have a few unimproved roads/paths that are not marked on maps. This may be particularly true in the mining area along the Petaquilla River. Sections of this coastline are reportedly used for narco-trafficking and other illicit activities.
The area of the Darién encompasses the Darién National Park as well as some privately-owned nature reserves and tourist resorts. The general remoteness of the region contributes to the potential hazards. Due to scarcity of roads, most travel is by river or by footpath. This, combined with spotty medical infrastructure outside of major towns, makes travel there potentially hazardous. In addition, there have been reports of Colombian narco-traffickers and other criminals operating in the Panama-Colombia border area. 

 

[JackThompson]

10 hours ago, joeyg said:

The Mosquito Coast (Caribbean side) and the Darien Region (Colombian border) are particularly hazardous due to their remoteness and the presence of criminal organizations. ...

 

The "Darien Gap" area of Panama is basically outside of state-control - not even a consideration for travel, but the US-backed Coup and long history of Imperialism in Panama have left a legacy of resentment. 

 

Having lived in Central America prior to coming to SE Asia, I would advise Westerners to be aware of increasing gang-problems in the region (gangs formed by youth-migrant experiences in US-Prisons, which function as "racist-training centers").   They specifically target "gringos" as "the enemy."   The migrant-returnee factor is not significant in South America, but they do have kidnapping rings that are notorious; they will run a credit check on your family, and demand "all of it" in exchange for your life, sending back ears, fingers, etc if their demands are not met (Brazil, in particular). 

 

In the past, if you didn't get in the way of the drug-cartels, they left you alone (bad for business to bother non-participants), and some cartel-controlled areas in Columbia were the safest places for a foreigner to live.  But these cartels are increasingly usurping what were previously state-functions.  A brazen example is "Los Zetas" in Mexico (former US-Trained Mexican special-forces, used to attack the Chiapas anti-NAFTA rebels).  Many of these gangs are no longer trying to do their business quietly, and have "branched out" into kidnapping, etc. 

 

These crime-factors were one of the reasons I moved to SE Asia, to spite the general populace in Latin America being very nice people.  There are certainly "safe zones" throughout Central and South America - where the locals rely-upon income from foreigners, and protect them accordingly (you are often safer than the locals, as local-businesses will hire vigilantes to kill anyone who messes with "their foreigners") - but travel is generally more perilous.