Ban on visiting Thailand

[Thai_Faen-old]

This all goes back to a jewellry heist in the very early 90's by a Thai domestic worker which was followed by the murder of 3 Saudi embassy staff in Bangkok. Up to that time Saudi Arabia had employed thousands and thousands of Thais but virtually all were let go. And from that time Saudis were banned from travelling to Thailand. Recently many had started to go back but it seems the Passport and Immigration Office have decided enforce it once again. There were a couple of articles in the Saudi Gazette the last couple of days, one of which gives a rather good history of the whole thing.

If youy do a search of the Saudi Gazette you will find a couple of articles about it.

Anyway, it has nothing at all to do with disease and is really more of a pissing contest between the 2 governments. Things had started to thaw but since the coup in Thailand it seems there has been freeze again. There was talk a year ago of opening direct air links again but a friend of mine who works for Saudia says it's all on hold again.

Having worked and enjoyed my time in Saudi and knowing how strict the Saudi authorities can be for enforcing things in general in their own country... maybe one of the ministers was overcharged for a cappuccino in BKK on one of his visits and decided to get his own back (joking).

After seeing the various comments on this thread I would tend to agree with Once In Awhile reply for the current problems between the two countries.

I wonder if the Saudis are stopping Thai Muslims visiting Mecca (no I am not talking about the bingo club).

Oh just before I go... I would never class Thailand as a hell hole.

Thai_Faen :bounce:

One of the things that I have always found fascinating is how around Sunee the Gay and Arab communities' establishments come together and even mix on Soi VC. There has always been a live and let live atmosphere...Hookah Bars and Boy Go Go bars in very close proximity. I have always felt very safe walking out of Sunee past all of the Arab bars with a boy even late at night. Arabs are every bit the horny pigs that the Gay guys are, but they have developed a behind the scene way of hooking up with both girls and boys. I'm feeling very sorry for all of those poor Saudi men who are now put in the position of chuck wow in the closet back in Saudi. Poor Arab guys are not even allowed to see a women's foot at home, and if they have sex with a guy....OFF WITH THE HEAD!!!!

[allieb]

Yes Once in a whileis right this has just appeared in the english language Saudi Newspaper. I originally got the strory from the Arabic version which was completely different. This often happens in this part of the world the Arabic reports and the English can be worlds apart. If this story is true then Thailand seems to be more corrupt than I imagined.



Monday, 30 July 2007The Saudi Gazette R500 Fine for Saudis Who Travel to Thailand

THE Passports and Immigration Department has revealed that Saudis traveling to Thailand will be fined SR500, and banned from traveling outside the Kingdom for six months upon their return.

This travel ban is not a recent ban, but one that was put into effect in 1991.
According to officials at the Passports and Immigration Department, the travel ban had never been lifted.

"I remember for a period during the 1990s, my passport had a line in it that said the passport was valid for travel to all countries except Thailand," Hashem Talal, 35, a Saudi businessman told the Saudi Gazette.

"To me, this was a clear indication that I couldn't go there, but when I renewed my passport in 2000, the passport was marked valid for all countries."

Many Saudis, including Talal assumed the travel ban had been lifted. The fact that the Thai Embassy in Riyadh is issuing tourist visas to Saudis nationals further confused the issue, as did the summer packages offered to Saudi vacationers by travel agencies across the Kingdom.

"I have never had a desire to go to Thailand because of what I hear about the sex industry there, and quite honestly, I assumed it was because of that that Saudis were banned from traveling there," 23-year-old Saudi student Mohanad Al-Zahrani told Saudi Gazette.

With the Thai embassy in Riyadh issuing visas to Saudi nationals, and with travel agencies advertising summer packages to Bangkok and Phuket all over the Kingdom, the renewed warning issued by the Passports and Immigration Department has left many surprised and curious as to why?

According to a report published in the Times of London, the Saudi-Thai ties soured in 1990, following the theft of $20 million worth of gems from a home in Riyadh.

Suspected in the theft was a Thai domestic worker who had managed to send through a courier company the 90 kilograms worth of jewels to his family in Bangkok over a period of three months.

When the domestic worker returned to Thailand, he buried some of his loot and started selling items individually for $30 apiece.

He was arrested and the police seized the remaining jewelry. It was then that most of it disappeared.

The lead police investigator on the case allegedly, put the items on display in Bangkok announcing a police department triumph. He was even given a medal by the Saudi Government.

The main items, however, were missing and others were later found to be faked copies. One of the pieces of jewelry was spotted on a high-society woman at a Red Cross dinner in Bangkok.

Santi Sritanakhan, a jeweler who was fencing the gems, was kidnapped and tortured allegedly on the orders of police. A week later his wife, Darawadee, and son, Seri, were found murdered in a Mercedes-Benz, the newspaper reported. Thai police forensic officers put the death down to a road accident.

Later four men admitted committing the murders on police orders. They had demanded a ransom of $2.5 million from the jeweler.

When Saudi Arabia began investigating the disappearance of the gems in Thailand, a spate of assassinations shook Bangkok.

In one day in 1991, three Saudi diplomats, A. Z. Al-Basri, the Consul General, Fahad Al-Bahli, an attach├й, and Ahmed Al-Saif, a telex operator, were murdered outside their homes. Two weeks later a Saudi businessman, Mohammed Al-Ruwaili, disappeared.

In a highly publicized case, the corrupt officials received sentences ranging from seven years to the death sentence. It still remains unclear where the gems are today.

Most recently, in an unrelated case, perhaps the case that re-energized the travel ban to Thailand, a 29-year-old Saudi schoolteacher drowned while swimming off a Thai beach last week.

Lets be honest, i will give 3 cheers to see all the clothe heads get kicked out and go back to killing each other in the desertsl
So who really gives a toss why? who and where!!!

for a country to put restrictions on people visiting a country. Israel must have quite a few enemies in that respect. For example, Malaysian passport holders cannot visit or go through Israel. There are obviously issues which they have between each other (Saudi and Thailand), and I bet they have taken other factors into consideration, such as the sex industry. We must remember there is probably no sex education in Saudi, and therefore a lot of ignorance in that department. Also, if a Saudi citizen really wants to go to Thailand he will find a way around it.

[Wesley]

Often Bg is right in in his posts ocassioanlly he is worng and when he is, I say so. None is right 100% of the time and Bg could with a few less explsetives and a few more of some of his genious in this one

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

I've worked myself (..yes actually worked once) in the ME and you are correct-the money is always fantastic..apart from Arab people who I am very fond of.

A directive like this went out to Saudis in the late 1970's when London was awash with Saudi nationals spending money like crazy..and didn't we love it all ?

I had a very close friend..a member of the Saudi Royal Family who became very depressed at being ordered back to Riyadh to take on a government job. Sadly the poor chap died of a heart attack..but the reasons given at the time were the many scandals involving Saudis shoplifting at Harrods etc ( although one could be forgiven for "liberating" gods from the appalling Fayed these days ) and similar type tabloid tales.

The ban didn't last long..about 5 years but in the meantime the Saudis discovered the rest of Europe was possibly more fun...they never returned en-masse to the UK as in it's heyday and thousands of working lads and ladies were somewhat poorer because of it.

If Saudi's catching STD's n Thailand is the basis for keeping them in Saudi Arabia I am totally bewildered!
Are there no STD's in Saudi?
Is not the Saudi responsible for his own precautions if having sex in another country?
We have many Saudi visitors here in Australia, maybe they don't fuck over here (they're not really flavour of the month/year anyway.
I suspect this whole subject is political crap.

I suspect this whole subject is political crap.

Oh, really now? What was your first clue, Sherlock?

Certainly nothing said by shallow little you boygeenyus!
If your empty head can think of no better comments, I suggest you leave the keyboard alone!