The Russians were deported from Thailand for refusing to hand over biometrics: they made a scandal

“Behavior that poses a threat to society” – with this wording, a pregnant Russian woman with her husband and three-year-old daughter was deported from Thailand. The reason is the refusal to hand over prints upon arrival in Phuket.

We found out the details of the incident and clarified with the experts which of the parties is right – the vacationer or the host?

With a tour for 260 thousand rubles for two adults and a child, a pregnant mother, father and their daughter flew to Phuket from Vnukovo on December 1, and on December 3 they returned to Vnukovo again. Unfulfilled vacationers show passports with a refusal to enter the Kingdom of Thailand and an accompanying document in Thai and English. But their refusal to undergo the mandatory procedure is not explained very clearly. Here is how the pregnant mother of the family describes the situation, which was the first to start a dispute with the Thai border guard:

– Initially, everything was within the normal range of questions. It was incomprehensible to me: for the first time we are faced with such that upon arrival in the country we suddenly sealed our fingers, as if we were criminals. My religion, my beliefs do not allow me to scan my fingerprints. This is my biometrics, and I have certain beliefs in this regard, my personal ones.

But the versions of the further development of events are different for all their participants.

– Biometric control at all border crossings to our country was introduced in 2019, and from October 1, 2022, with the opening for tourists, it was resumed, – officers guarding Thai borders at Phuket airport are sure of their correctness. – On the website of our country’s embassies around the world, it is said that tour sellers are obliged to warn tourists. And because of this nervous ma’am, we ourselves lost time, and other passengers were detained.

The “nervous ma’am” herself assures that she tried to explain to the Thai officer that she was not obliged to undergo fingerprinting, only the language barrier prevented their communication. And the host ignored the demands of the tourist to call the Russian ambassador, consul, or at least an interpreter to the airport:

“Their officer constantly wrote on the phone and was nervous that we were distracting him and did not want to go, like all people, silently and handing over our fingerprints,” the tourist is indignant. – I cried, I had a terrible hysteria, hormones, but no one cared. “And instead of an ambassador or a consul, the Thai staff brought in all sorts of different people who looked at us like we were in a zoo.

Eyewitnesses, standing in the same queue, assure that everyone tried to reason with the capricious guest – from Thai officers and fellow travelers to their own husband and child.

– The girl stood and repeated: “Mom, when will we go to the sea”? say those who watched this scene. – The husband also said something like “Well, okay, we’ll hand over …”, but only under his breath, apparently so that his wife in an interesting position does not completely lose her temper.

As a result, a three-year-old girl with her “Mom, let’s go to the sea” turned out to be more convincing than the Thai border guards and passengers from the flight combined, and the scrupulous guest allowed her family to take their fingerprints. But then the Thai officers asked the woman’s husband to take off his glasses, which immediately nullified the previously achieved.

According to the restless tourist, her husband sees very badly, wears glasses all the time, and the Thai officer “really yelled at him.” Therefore, the husband allegedly could not restrain himself and replied: “What are you yelling about?” After that, the patience of the Thais snapped and instead of the hotel they escorted the family of tourists to the cell, where, according to the tourist, they were “treated like criminals” and “they didn’t even give water to take a pill.” At 10 am on December 3, the Thais boarded a flight flying back to Vnukovo, after which they finally exhaled.

“This ma’am didn’t calm down even in the cell,” a Russian-speaking guide from Phuket, who met his group that day, shares on condition of anonymity. She urged the guards to run her to the supermarket for healthy food. They only bring, and she rejects – here is gluten, there is sugar … She kept waiting for the Russian ambassador and was offended that he did not call her back.

Today, the tourist believes that her family suffered morally, physically and financially, and the travel agency is obliged to reimburse them 260 thousand rubles. She says that as a result of stress she got a health problem and is ready to prove it.

“The Thai side acted in accordance with the law,” they say at the Russian Embassy in Thailand. – During the pandemic break, tourists may have forgotten the rules. But a violation of the entry rules established by the country, and even more so a conflict with border guards, is an objective reason for deportation.

– In such a situation, the tour operator can only return what is left after the actual expenses incurred, – commented Yulia Krasova, lawyer in the field of tourism. – And since the tourists were already there, I think that in fact the organizer of their tour has already incurred the costs of all 100% of the cost of the tour package.

And taking this opportunity, the Thai border service and the Russian consulates in the Kingdom of Thailand report: it was thanks to the obligatory delivery of biometrics on arrival on the eve of the immigration police that they managed to track down and arrest the Russian, who was hiding from justice in Thai Pattaya. Now he has been placed under arrest and, most likely, will soon also be deported to his native Samara, where he is suspected of contract killing.