AN AMERICAN who spent more than six years cadging a living on Phuket has been transferred to the Bangkok Immigration Detention Centre where he is expected to stay until the fare for his repatriation to the US is raised.
What will happen if the fare is not raised remains unclear. Phuketwan has heard reports of expats spending months or even years in limbo in detention in Thailand in cases where no financial assistance is forthcoming.
Dean Mancuso's circumstances appear to be in sharp contrast to the case involving another American we know only as ''Nick,'' who was arrested in Thailand when she went on a visa run from Phuket to Ranong and could not pay the overstay fine.
Indications are that ''Nick,'' a yoga practitioner and considerably younger than 50-year-old Mr Mancuso, has been repatriated. We cannot be certain because US privacy laws strictly control the amount of information released in cases such as these.
Envoys from other countries are also not always forthcoming about these kinds of visa issues. As a result, instances such as these two cases are seldom reported.
While ''Nick'' was a short-term visitor to Phuket who probably planned to leave but misunderstood visa requirements, Mr Mancuso consciously decided to lead a life begging handouts from expat visitors after opting to not replace the passport he lost some time in 2004.
When Phuketwan spoke to him at Kathu Police Station in Patong, he told us he had not been in touch with members of his family for close to 10 years, and he deliberately avoided making expat friends on Phuket.
Having been apprehended, he expressed a strong desire to return to Thailand as soon as possible after expulsion to the US and to ''make a new beginning'' to support his Thai common law wife and their two young daughters.
Mr Mancuso, at one time a cook in the US military, has very little chance of doing that because he has very little chance of raising the cash for his repatriation flight, let alone a return flight to Thailand.
His ''wife'' said by telephone from her home in northern Thailand that she was so impoverished and had such difficulties feeding their daughters that the couple's third child, also a girl, had been adopted out to a relative who lived in Norway at the age of two.
Many nations share this problem. While Mr Mancuso said he knew of no other expats on Phuket who followed what he called his ''occupation'' - begging from tourists - Phuketwan was aware of the activities of Gabriella Rose-Marie Strand, who became notorious as an expat cadger around Patong, Karon and Chalong, at first with her companion Bjorn Lennart Lundqvist and then alone.
Unlike Mr Mancuso, Ms Strand mostly begged from Thais who, in many cases, could ill afford to support her. Earlier this year the 60-year-old Swede died a lonely, sad death in Patong.
A cat, two Phuketwan reporters, the undertaker and the undertaker's assistant comprised the mourners at her funeral.
For years, she had been allowed to travel backwards and forwards between Sweden and Phuket, with authorities in both countries knowing that she would be soon be begging once again from Thais who could not really afford to help.
In the same way, authorities in Patong knew about Dean Mancuso but did not react until the management at a local resort, having warned Mr Mancuso once not to pester guests, called police when he persisted.
Phuketwan draws no conclusion from the cases of Dean Mancuso and Gabriella Strand, except to note that yet again, Thailand's tolerance appears to be both its greatest virtue, and its greatest vice.
US Woman Held for 'Visa Run' Overstay BlunderWhat will happen if the fare is not raised remains unclear. Phuketwan has heard reports of expats spending months or even years in limbo in detention in Thailand in cases where no financial assistance is forthcoming.
Dean Mancuso's circumstances appear to be in sharp contrast to the case involving another American we know only as ''Nick,'' who was arrested in Thailand when she went on a visa run from Phuket to Ranong and could not pay the overstay fine.
Indications are that ''Nick,'' a yoga practitioner and considerably younger than 50-year-old Mr Mancuso, has been repatriated. We cannot be certain because US privacy laws strictly control the amount of information released in cases such as these.
Envoys from other countries are also not always forthcoming about these kinds of visa issues. As a result, instances such as these two cases are seldom reported.
While ''Nick'' was a short-term visitor to Phuket who probably planned to leave but misunderstood visa requirements, Mr Mancuso consciously decided to lead a life begging handouts from expat visitors after opting to not replace the passport he lost some time in 2004.
When Phuketwan spoke to him at Kathu Police Station in Patong, he told us he had not been in touch with members of his family for close to 10 years, and he deliberately avoided making expat friends on Phuket.
Having been apprehended, he expressed a strong desire to return to Thailand as soon as possible after expulsion to the US and to ''make a new beginning'' to support his Thai common law wife and their two young daughters.
Mr Mancuso, at one time a cook in the US military, has very little chance of doing that because he has very little chance of raising the cash for his repatriation flight, let alone a return flight to Thailand.
His ''wife'' said by telephone from her home in northern Thailand that she was so impoverished and had such difficulties feeding their daughters that the couple's third child, also a girl, had been adopted out to a relative who lived in Norway at the age of two.
Many nations share this problem. While Mr Mancuso said he knew of no other expats on Phuket who followed what he called his ''occupation'' - begging from tourists - Phuketwan was aware of the activities of Gabriella Rose-Marie Strand, who became notorious as an expat cadger around Patong, Karon and Chalong, at first with her companion Bjorn Lennart Lundqvist and then alone.
Unlike Mr Mancuso, Ms Strand mostly begged from Thais who, in many cases, could ill afford to support her. Earlier this year the 60-year-old Swede died a lonely, sad death in Patong.
A cat, two Phuketwan reporters, the undertaker and the undertaker's assistant comprised the mourners at her funeral.
For years, she had been allowed to travel backwards and forwards between Sweden and Phuket, with authorities in both countries knowing that she would be soon be begging once again from Thais who could not really afford to help.
In the same way, authorities in Patong knew about Dean Mancuso but did not react until the management at a local resort, having warned Mr Mancuso once not to pester guests, called police when he persisted.
Phuketwan draws no conclusion from the cases of Dean Mancuso and Gabriella Strand, except to note that yet again, Thailand's tolerance appears to be both its greatest virtue, and its greatest vice.
UPDATE The US Embassy in Bangkok is investigating an alarming case in which an American woman on a one day visa run from Phuket to Ranong found herself under arrest.
US Woman Held for 'Visa Run' Overstay Blunder
American's Trip to Life's Other Side on Phuket
Latest A life in limbo has come to an end for American Dean Mancuso. His strange existence on Phuket has left him in a cell, facing uncertainty and worried about his daughters.
American's Trip to Life's Other Side on Phuket
A Phuket Death: The Abject Loneliness of Gabriella
PHOTO ALBUM Phuketwan has helped to farewell one of Sweden's notorious holidaying hobos but it was not the kind of sendoff that she, or anyone else, would relish.
A Phuket Death: The Abject Loneliness of Gabriella
Seventeen Deaths But Swedish Consulate to Close
Sweden's Consulate on Phuket is closing, emphasising the vital role that Acting Consul Christina Palm and other diplomats play in dealing with death, poverty and even madness.
Seventeen Deaths But Swedish Consulate to Close
If Thailand has sensible citizenship laws, a man, married to a local, with children in the country, having lived here a decade, would not be in a detention centre being deported to a country he no longer has connections with. He would be a citizen, not living in fear, unable to get a job or report to anywhere.
Rather than claim this to be something born of Thailand's tolerance, its possible to view this 'problem' as being one derived from Thailand's reluctance to have a process of citizenship for 'foreigners' allowing them to join the community and legalise themselves within the country.
Posted by LivinLOS on October 29, 2010 12:26