Innocent tourist Jailed for no reason

[shygye]

Link

 

The Simon Burrowes saga appears to have finally come to a conclusion as the Englishman pled guilty to a charge of being impolite to a state official and was fined 500 baht.

 

Burrowes was due to fly back to the UK on January 31, but became involved in an altercation with Immigration Police officials at Phuket International Airport, who suspected his passport was fake.

 

Mr Burrowes lost his temper with the immigration officials, whom he had accused of laughing at him.

 

He was subsequently arrested and spent the next three weeks in Phuket Provincial Prison before his release on bail.

 

The incident, which caught the attention of the British media, was widely publicized internationally.

 

Mr Burrowes appeared before Phuket Provincial Court again yesterday and walked away a free man after paying a court-ordered fine of 500 baht (approx US$14.28).

 

He had originally intended to plead not guilty but, faced with the prospect of a prison sentence, was persuaded to change his plea.

 

â??If I had plead not guilty, this could have gone on for awhile and I could have got anything up to three years, so I decided to stop fighting. I was forced to plead guilty,â? he explained.

 

He has been stuck in Thailand since his release from prison, but now that the case is over he is hoping to return to his native England.

 

â??They returned my passport, but the visa has expired so that is now being processed. I donâ??t know how much that is going to cost; hopefully, it wonâ??t cost me anything,â? he said.

 

Perhaps surprisingly, Mr Burrowes is not desperate to leave Thailand.

 

â??Iâ??d like to stay here for a bit longer, just to relax for a few days. I also need to raise funds for my flight home, which might take awhile. The flight I missed was non-refundable,â? he said.

 

He has no plans to return to the Land of Smiles.

 

â??I doubt I will ever come back. Thailand is not a bad place, but I have had an awful experience here,â? he said.

 

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He will now be arrested and fined for overstaying his visa.

[Al]

(catch-22 TIT style)

 

Still, there is one more fishy thing about this story: Thailand has hi-tech border processing equipment, as evidenced by the cameras you look into when you enter or leave the country. One would assume that a country with hi-tech shit that advanced would also have biometric readers.

 

I know that every US passport has a biometric chip. See here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_passport

and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_passport

Seems they are the sign of the times everywhere.

 

(I like how they say it cannot be read unless the passport is open. yeah, if you believe that I got some real estate to sell you)

 

Unless our boxing friend's passport was too old, the Thai border police could have read the biometric chip and found it valid. Shouldn't they assume that he doesn't have the where-with-all to fuck with that?

 

 

[ThaiHome]

My US passport does not have a chip, nor I am required to get one until it expires in 6 years. If his UK passport was issued before 2006 it does not have chip. Iâ??m not sure all or any Thailand borders have biometric readers.

 

TH

[cavanami]

When/if they "chip"my passport...I can see an accidental visit of the passport to the microwave

[ThaiHome]

Well, when airline counter at check-in at the US goes to read your passport and says, sorry sir, we cannot let you board as there is no guarantee the country you are flying to will let you enter as your chip is unreadable, you can have the same sort of confrontation with security at that airport as they escort you out the door that this poor guy had with Thai Immigration.

As they say, up to youâ?¦

TH

 

PS â?? You need to take the political compass test in the board bar

 

[kamui]

Well, when airline counter at check-in at the US goes to read your passport and says, sorry sir, we cannot let you board as there is no guarantee the country you are flying to will let you enter as your chip is unreadable, you can have the same sort of confrontation with security at that airport as they escort you out the door that this poor guy had with Thai Immigration.

As they say, up to youâ?¦

TH

 

PS â?? You need to take the political compass test in the board bar

 

I am not sure if you mixing up something. I think today passports must be machine-readable, but they must not contain a chip. These are two different matters IMHO.

[Flashermac]

You've reminded me of a song and dance I got from customs at Frankfurt once upon a time long ago. The Peace Corps had us get special passports, which really were nothing but an ordinary US passport with a US State Department state in them. Seems Frankfurt couldn't figure out what I was. I wasn't a diplomat, since I didn't have a diplomatic passport. Yet there was that stamp, so it must mean something. I saw them actually pull out a list of photos of wanted international terrorists to see if I was one of them! They finally shrugged, gave me back my passport and waved me on.

 

 

I heard from other PC vols who'd also got strange reactions from customs officials because of that State Dept stamp.

 

[Sakai]

I remember the time when I had to wait 30 minutes at the boarding gate because an airport security team found my passport strange and thought I had a stolen passport. I suppose the morons thought my face didn't match my name.

 

 

[Torneyboy]

Just have to jump through the hoops and move on ..imo

[Torneyboy]

Our new ones have chips...E passports