Guest fountainhall Posted July 21, 2011 Posted July 21, 2011 In an article that will further drag down Thailand’s image as a wholesome family tourist destination, The New York Times has printed a damning article titled “Thailand's Irresistible Attraction for Fugitives” Rather than paraphrase it, here are some excerpts. BANGKOK — Give me your drug dealers, your money launderers, your felons on the lam yearning to breathe free. ... Thailand has never advertised itself as a beacon for fugitives, but the world’s wretched refuse — to tweak the noble words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty — seem to show up here in droves. Millions of tourists, most of them presumably without criminal records, travel to Thailand every year, drawn by the good food, lively night life and crystal waters. Fugitives come for the same reasons — plus the prospect, for some, of outliving a statute of limitations. “Thailand has traditionally been one of the top source countries for extradition of criminals to the U.S.,” reads a March 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy obtained by WikiLeaks. The cable lists the wide variety of fugitives nabbed in Thailand over the years: child molesters, narcotics traffickers, money launderers and cybercriminals, among others . . . In the past two years, the news media here have reported the arrest in Thailand of Germans wanted for fraud and tax evasion; a man suspected of being a South Korean mafia boss; Czech bank robbers convicted of stealing several million euros (and who fled to Thailand after jumping bail while their case was under appeal); Pakistani passport forgers; a convicted Filipino murderer who was the most wanted man in the Philippines but worked in Bangkok as a jeweler; a French drug trafficker who thought he could elude the police by using his brother’s passport; the head of Japan’s second-largest organized crime syndicate; an Israeli fugitive convicted of double murder in Belgium and traveling on a forged Maldives passport; an Indian man wanted for sending a bevy of fraudulent spam; an Australian suspected of murdering a family of three; and a seemingly countless number of pedophiles . . . Many criminals seem to find refuge in Pattaya, the seedy seaside resort southeast of Bangkok known for its vast stretches of girly bars . . . “There are a number of minor reasons and one very major one why the jet-setting underground would find Thailand irresistible,” Mr. Burdett said in an e-mail. “The minor ones would include guns, girls, gambling, ganja and gorgeous beaches, especially for those recently released from confinement.” But what makes Thailand especially attractive, Mr. Burdett said, “is the international reputation, whether deserved or not, of a compliant and bribable police force.” . . . Lt. Gen. Wiboon Bangthamai, the head of the country’s immigration police, said in an interview that officials at remote border posts had been known to suffer inexplicable computer troubles when cash-rich people sought to cross Thai borders illegally. “Officers at small border checkpoints would break the computers and let them in,” General Wiboon said. . . . Bangkok’s red-light districts crawl with glassy-eyed, beer-swilling foreigners who might not look out of place on the most-wanted poster on a post office wall. But as one Thai government adviser noted, it can be hard to distinguish between the felons and the investment bankers on vacation. (In some cases, presumably, they could be one and the same.) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/world/asia/21iht-thailand21.html Thailand's most challenging job? Running the Tourism Authority, I reckon Quote
TotallyOz Posted July 21, 2011 Posted July 21, 2011 In the list of g's "guns, girls, gambling, ganja and gorgeous beaches" as reasons for picking Thailand, I am glad they didn't include gays. It is obvious many flee here as it is easy to live if you have money. However, I wonder how many criminals are deported from the USA every year? Quote
pong Posted July 21, 2011 Posted July 21, 2011 1.IMHO this is also a recycled item-saw the same-or at least same meaning, either in Nation or |Bkk-Post the odd day ago. Usually this boils down to a new police-highup-inspector (of course very clean and not even spent offering a thai whiskey to his formers to land that job.....) giving his maiden speech. 2.re Michael: I doubt if they differ between criminals and ''unwanted'' or overstayers. My personal bet is that the nr. of people sent back (only due having overstayed or maybe entered illegal-is that also criminal??- is at least 10 times as high as the nr. of criminals (convicted in their own country which has a reciprocal agreement about it and caught in the US) deported back. Quote
Guest fountainhall Posted July 21, 2011 Posted July 21, 2011 1.IMHO this is also a recycled item-saw the same-or at least same meaning, either in Nation or |Bkk-Post the odd day ago. I checked back on the NYT article. You must have seen it in today's International Herald Tribune - A version of this article appeared in print on July 21, 2011, in The International Herald Tribune with the headline: Thailand's Irresistible Attraction for Fugitives. SInce 2009, the IHT has been the global edition of the NYT. Quote
