Phuketwan Updating Report
THE ARREST and jailing of Briton Simon Burrowes has created great concern among tourists and expats about Thai laws governing disputes with Immigration officials.
Director General of Immigration at the Phuket International Airport, Suksopon Maneeson, declined today to allow Phuketwan to view the contentious photograph in Mr Burrowes' passport.
He added that the voice tape of Mr Burrowes' conversation at the Immigration counter on January 31 was also likely to be produced as evidence in court.
For that reason, he could not provide a transcript.
Mr Burrowes has since spend more than three weeks in a crowded Phuket Jail before being bailed, and on April 26 faces the possibility of a lengthy jail term.
His problems began as he fronted Immigration on his way out of Phuket after a holiday.
The circumstances and his punishment so far have caused alarm among other Britons and tourists from other countries.
Khun Suksoporn said today that, as could be expected, there are quite often debates between departing or arriving passengers and Immigration officials.
However, he said, to his knowledge, the Burrowes case was the first on Phuket that actually led to the arrest and imprisonment of a tourist.
A senior police officer told Phuketwan that Thai law protected officials on duty.
If they faced abuse or threatening behavior, the person involved could be arrested and face a charge, with a one-year jail term as the maximum penalty.
The dispute involving Mr Burrowes began when the Immigration official looked at his passport. Her attention focussed on his passport photograph.
According to Khun Suksoporn, the portrait shot of Mr Burrowes was shirtless. He was not looking directly at the camera, but at an angle, out to one side.
Reports say that about this time, Mr Burrowes' friend and travelling companion negotiated outbound Immigration and headed for the flight back to Britain that they were both due to catch.
Probably with one eye on the time of the flight, Mr Burrowes watched as his passport was handed back to another official for closer examination.
According to Mr Burrowes, as quoted in The Voice online, the official examined the passport carefully for about 30 minutes.
As his flight time drew closer, Mr Burrowes apparently became agitated to the point where he allegedly snatched the passport back, swore at the official, and criticised Thailand in a way that caused the official to take offence.
A spokesperson at the British Embassy said today that the passport had been verified as genuine.
''Thai authorities now accept that it is a legitimate passport, so our understanding is that the charge relating to the passport has been dropped,'' she told Phuketwan.
She said that passport shots were now required to have the subject look directly at the camera, but did not elaborate on whether this was the case in Mr Burrowes' passport, nor confirm whether he was shirtless in the photograph.
Thai culture disapproves of people appearing shirtless in public, although it is acceptable on beaches.
For official documents in Thailand (passport, ID Card, drivers license, etc), Thais must wear shirts that cover their shoulders.
Khun Suksoporn yesterday questioned the standards of any passport that did not follow international convention, and suggested that the British standard in this case was lower than that of Cambodia or Laos.
The key question in the Burrowes case remains whether a tourist who has been apprehended on what many view as a minor charge should have to spend three weeks in Phuket Jail, built for 700 inmates but overcrowded with more than 1000.
While jailers expressed concern about the safety of Phuketwan reporters who wanted to tour the prison, the same concern does not appear to be held by Thai authorities about the safety of Mr Burrowes.
He has already served a three week jail penalty and his case will not be heard until April 26.
The spokesperson for the British Embassy said today that the conditions in Thai jails ''is something we raise with the Thai authorities in an ongoing process. It is something other embassies are probably raising, too.''
Phuketwan has applied for permission from the Justice Ministry to tour Phuket Jail.
Phuketwan's News File
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Latest Analysis Phuket's Burrowes affair probably alarms many people. Tourists can sympathise with a man who wants to catch a flight and is wrongly accused of carrying a faked passport.
Lessons from One Phuket Tourist's Nightmare
Briton 'Jailed on Phuket for Being Rude'
Latest A British man says he was detained on his way out of Phuket and held in jail for ''being rude'' to an Immigration official. Phuketwan will update as more facts emerge.
Briton 'Jailed on Phuket for Being Rude'
Hassling tourists on their way home is ridiculous! I will not come back to Thailand!
Posted by Hans Schneider on March 5, 2009 19:51