A UK businessman has warned holidaymakers to be careful when travelling to Thailand after he was banged up in a prison for over two weeks – he said the conditions were ‘disgusting’
British tourist secretly films conditions in Thailand prison
A Brit tourist has vowed to “never” go back to Thailand after he was jailed alongside 130 men inside a cramped cell.
The ex-soldier, who has remained anonymous, has exposed the inhumane conditions he witnessed after sneaking a camera inside the jail. The 29-year-old said he was held in two police cells and a Bangkok deportation centre for 15 days. Shocking footage documented how convicts were shoved into small cells with hole-in-the-floor toilets.
Pictures showed dozens of men sleeping on mats next to each other, as they were positioned like sardines. The man explained he had only been in Thailand for seven months before he was arrested and charged for overstaying his visa. He had plans to set up a business when he arrived in April, with plans to settle down.
But he was arrested in November, in Pattaya, and as a result was held in custody for two weeks before being deported, on December 5. The man, who now works in marketing, said: “The conditions were absolutely disgusting. The deportation centre was the worst. The only way I can describe it is hell.
“There was no ventilation and 130 of us in the room. We could only go out for an hour a week. At the deportation centre, they’d bring in a big pot of food and you’d each get a tray to eat off. The trays were then washed in cold water on the bathroom floor – which was filthy. In all locations, there were fire ants and cockroaches. The rubbish wasn’t collected – it was just piled in the corner. There was a guy who sat in one corner selling tiny pot noodles – that was the only thing I’d eat.”
The man said it was commonplace for people to overstay on Thai visas and he believed officials usually asked for a small fee to renew the documents. But he was arrested after a disagreement with an ex, he says. Police checked his passport and found he was a few days late renewing his visa, he said.
The police asked him to pay 50,000 Baht (£1,180) instead of 500 to release him straight away, and he couldn’t pay it, he said. He was taken to court the next day where he was asked to pay 2,000 Baht for the visa overstay and 500 for the cost of the night he’d been detained.
He was also banned from visiting Thailand for five years and sent to a deportation centre until his flight home had been arranged. He was then detained until December 5, and deported. “When I was arrested they were very violent,” he said. “Two police came up behind me in a public toilet and beat me.
“They chucked me in a flatbed of a truck and handcuffed me to the side. I was very dazed – I’m sure I had concussion. They didn’t tell me anything. Luckily there were some Russian guys sharing my cell who spoke Thai so they told me what to expect. One of them lent me the money to pay my court fine straight away otherwise it would have been even worse for me.”
Eight days were in a police cell in Pattaya – where eight inmates were crowded into a six-by-four foot cell. He bribed guards to have a few people moved to another cell to allow more space, he said. He also payed bribes to have food brought in, for cleaning products to get the bathroom more sanitary, and to send messages to his mum in the UK, he said.
He said: “The cell was tiny. We couldn’t lie down properly and certainly not all at the same time. There was a pregnant girl from Laos who was really struggling. She was crying all the time with her head on the floor. It was horrible. There was another cell of the same size with 13 people in.”
Eventually, he was moved to Bangkok to the deportation centre, where he saw the most shocking conditions, he said. 130 inmates shared four hole-in-the-wall toilets which they cleaned with a bucket of cold water, he said. And they washed by filling tiny bowls from a cold water bucket.
He was there for five days while his mum battled the British embassy to have him flown home, he said. Eventually, after paying for the flight home plus 500 Baht per night for the five nights in the deportation centre, he was released to fly home. He was able to take the footage because he smuggled in his phone in a pack of baby wipes, he said.
He said: “Once you’re in there you have no contact with anyone and no way to get your money, so unless someone is fighting for you on the outside and knows you’re there you have no hope. The deportation centre was the worst thing I’ve seen in my life.
“I really want to put it all behind me but it’s important for people to know what it’s like: I want people to know what goes on over there. Lots of people let their visas run out and then pay a small fee to renew them, but don’t do it, don’t risk it at all. I don’t want anyone else to become a victim of this.”