BuffHello Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 Thursday, February 9, 2006 Police arrest 12 on Ranong ?visa run? RANONG: Twelve foreign tourists were pulled off a ?visa run? bus just 40 miles from Ranong and confined to a jail cell overnight for overstaying their visas. The company that arranged the tour claims that the arresting officers, from the Tourist Police and Highway Police, demanded 5,000 baht from each of the overstayed tourists in exchange for letting them go. The police strenuously deny this. Six officers waved over the well-known ?Big Bus? run by Phenpat Co Ltd at about 11 am yesterday morning in Ranong?s Kapoe District. The officers inspected the passports of the 34 foreign passengers and found that 12 had overstayed their visas. They separated the 12 from the others, who were allowed to continue on to Ranong. The 12 were taken off in a police truck and confined in the local police cells. Jutarat Payonchart, an employee of Phenpat Co Ltd, told the Gazette from the Ranong courthouse this afternoon that the police had overreacted by incarcerating the visa runners. ?Why did they have to keep them overnight in a cell? These aren?t illegal aliens trying to hide out in the country,? she asked, adding that most were just one- or two-day overstays. The maximum overstay was just 12 days, she added. K. Jutharat said she was preparing to pay fines for those who had not brought along enough money to cover the unexpected expense ? but by 5:30 pm the following day they were still at Ranong Provincial Court trying to pay the fines. One of those arrested, a 31-year-old Australian man whose 30-day tourist visa expired the day before, told the Gazette: ?It was terrible. I am so dirty now ? I need to change my clothes. We didn?t have any information. ?It was crap. The police are hospitable in a way, but they don?t give us any information. They say we broke the law and all this stuff. ?In my case, on Tuesday I went to [Phuket] Immigration and said, ?This is the last day of my visa, it expires tomorrow, what should I do?? and they said, ?Go and do a visa run tomorrow and pay a 200 baht overstay.? ?That?s exactly what I [was doing], but then we get pulled over by the Tourist Police and Highway Police and they make a huge problem for us,? he said. He added that he found it dangerous and embarrassing to be forced to squat in the back of a cramped, hot police truck, which transported the overstayers along the highway with a police escort, sirens blaring. The unexpected delay had also caused him to missed his flight out of the country, he said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 oh come on, this is great after dinner party chit chat yarning...'how we were busted by thai cops and banged up for the night and here to tell the tail'....wish stuff like this happened to me in los :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigma Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 Well, that settles it for me. Not gonna do another run until the new airport opens, and then I'll pay the 20k max. Visa runs are for suckers :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 BuffHello said:?It was crap. The police are hospitable in a way, but they don?t give us any information. They say we broke the law and all this stuff. Hello! You did break the law. It's really simple. The stamp in your passport tells you when you must leave. If you stay longer than that, then you break the law. Regards, SD [sD, this can be said without getting personal - KS] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCgringo Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 and also "The unexpected delay had also caused him to missed his flight out of the country," One day ! , why not pay the fine at the Airport, you can do that right ? OC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatbastard Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 Sure ! but pulling the bus is a dirty trick, I dunno why they just didn't pay off the cops the 5 K each as they wanted. I mean you will never win with them, I argued with one on the Hua Hin bypass for over 30 mins this week and still ended up paying him 200 baht. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steffi Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 Well the day that someone commits suicide because of stress in a Thai jail cell or the day and overstayer dies in the police custody then questions will be asked. Personally I believe the story that they targeted the bus for the bribe. I think it's a cheap shot to do this and since the intentions of the passengers are to remain legal or to become legal you really have to question this tactic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steffi Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 You have to wonder whether the department of immigration is happy about this. I'd suspect it is not. If you encourage everybody to be legal when they cross the border or leave the country then you will never collect any fines. Surely the amount of money collected from fines is significant. It sounds to me as those this was some rogue police trying to make a quick buck. I'd expect them to be punished for this as if they get away with it it will simply encourage more police to try the same thing elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pescator Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 So they overstayed and they got busted. What is the big deal? Oh, now I know, usually they get away with it, but they didn`t this time. That definitely is unfair. :: OCgringo, sure you can, but you do this at your own peril if you are busted outside of the airport, as everybody knows. And if they don`t they`ll learn that soon enough. Steffi: "the police trying to do the same thing elsewhere" you mean enforce the law? "It was terrible. I am so dirty now ? I need to change my clothes. " Oh my gawd, this surely is a violation of human rights. hua nguu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steffi Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 I once had about 13 days overstay on my passport and went to the Don Muang train station to ask the travel agents there about tickets. Something I suggest you never do. In no time a policeman saw me and luckily for me a train pulled in just as he noticed me. The train separated us as we were on either side of the track. I took the opportunity to bolt up the ramp and immediately booked a business class ticket to Singapore on Swiss Air. One thing is that travel agent wanted to keep my passport whilst they tried to find me a good fare. I knew then that I probably shouldn't have gone there. The Swiss Air lady said they only had business class seats avaliable and never had anyway to check but I was pretty relieved when arrived back in the country. Lesson is .. be very careful what you do when you have overstay in your passport. To this day I have never been asked to present my passport when walking in public. These days I'm on Type O visas with 3 months. Another thing is the guy at the consulate in the US actually tries to price your multiple entry visa based on the # of entries. I think I'm going to follow up with the consulate when I get back because I would have paid the extra for the multiple entry (fixed price) but because I had to pay $50 for each entry (according to the clerk) I didn't bother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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