FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Suvarnabhumi Immigration bullying is a tourism-killer

Suvarnabhumi Immigration bullying is a tourism-killer

I arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport on Tuesday night. Friends with a one-month-old baby were waiting to pick me up so I was hurrying to Immigration. While getting my visa checked a more senior Immigration officer appeared out of nowhere and examined my passport.

I had a two-month tourist visa issued in Melbourne, Australia, but according to this officer I could not enter the country as I had visited too many times on a tourist visa. He was extremely aggressive and angry. I explained I had travelled to Thailand for 34 years on a tourist visa without a problem.
He said I needed a non-immigrant visa but that this required a marriage licence and other documents. I gently suggested he might be wrong as I had been at the embassy only a few days before and, if I had been overusing a tourist visa, surely they would have told me.
I was dragged over to an office and made to wait. The officer reappeared and suddenly started speaking in Thai, which fortunately I can understand, telling me basically that he was going to do me a favour by letting me in. His superior appeared and I explained in Thai that I thought there had been a misunderstanding, since I had been in Thailand only three weeks previously and no Immigration officer had ever mentioned there was a limit on tourist visa use. 
It’s difficult to imagine how a young person or first-time traveller would have handled this. I got the impression this was going to be a shakedown, until they realised I understood the rules, spoke Thai and had Thai friends waiting outside for me. The Immigration officer who dealt with me was angry, aggressive and made me feel like I’d committed a crime. I felt like turning around and leaving. No wonder tourism is suffering, with this type of nonsense going on. I felt totally intimidated and helpless as the officials seemed to make up laws that don’t exist.
Andrew Thomas 

nationthailand