This space was reserved for an exposé of a human trafficking link between Pattaya and the UK. I am afraid it was however sort of hijacked by two free beers, a rather nice Cottage Pie, so large I was unable to finish it, the intransigence of the U.K. Border Agency, a footballer who kissed Elton John, and an audible yawn from a Fleet Street news editor.
The thing is I had planned a short trip to London with a lady boy. I had not acquired the lady boy yet but had all information at hand not only to acquire one but also take her to Paddington station and get a free return ticket in the process plus five hundred quid.
It can’t be that much of a secret that a British pub in Pattaya is one of the interview points where Brits with little cash can be fixed up to courier lady boys to the UK without a visa, because three separate people had called me about it and given me the phone numbers of the ringleaders.
Did you read that right? Yes. Without a visa. Well at least without having to get one before departure to the UK.
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| ‘I had Jimmy White in the back of my cab once’ |
Here’s how it goes. You and your lady boy get bought a ticket to any country which accepts Thais without a visa. There are quite a few in South America which is of course way past the UK. The ticket is routed through the UK arriving at Heathrow with a connecting flight a few hours later to, say Sao Paulo, from Gatwick.
Now all you have to do is get your story right at Heathrow. Perhaps you have promised your lady boy partner that she would definitely see a Brazil nut tree before she died. Actually anything will do. The reason for you both going to Brazil is no consequence to the UKBA.
You can also wave around a National bus timetable and ask the officer where the bus stop is to Gatwick.
A variation of this is to get a flight to Paris on a European visa and then your lady boy announces that either her close relative or her surgeon has been taken ill and is on death’s door and you need to get back to Bangkok in a hurry – but the only flight is from Heathrow and you arrive in the UK on one of the Paris shuttles to Gatwick for a connection departing Heathrow.
Voila! That should all get you a transit visa which will last a day at max.
Anyway I tried the ‘We’re all going to hell in a handcart’ foreign editor at the Daily Mail, and Britain for the British Daily Express and finally the SUN. No interest at all. The SUN presumably was not interested because I guess it might actively promote the arrival of more big tits, medically enhanced or not. But I was surprised at the silence of the Mail and Express.
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| Secret filing for C4 Dispatches |
I also went through the motions of contacting the UKBA.
This is never a good idea at the best of times but I needed to know the legal situation of what they would do to me or my nominee once we had declared we had smuggled our own little Ting Tong Macadangdang into Britain.
A few years ago with London Weekend TV for Channel 4 Dispatches I had helped expose a few of these rings in Bangkok. (It was not all smooth running – see this link).
During the process we told British Immigration that three prostitutes and our inserted Thai woman were going to the Embassy the following day with the intention of prostituting themselves in the UK.
We gave the name of our woman. So guess what happened? Our woman was the only one not to get a visa.
The UKBA gave a nonsensical answer to my email to them. This is of course Home Office and Foreign Office policy. So I ditched the idea.
I had to go to a ‘Life on Mars’ UBKA officer I knew in London for a sensible answer. He basically said that at the moment there was little the UKBA could to to plug the gap in the visa laws, short of escorting every transit visa recipient to their onward flight.
“All the villains know about this. Word has got out. Lots of people we suspect are doing it.”
I finally went along to Pattaya, where, and this is not reported in the local media, 75 per cent of the bar girls have now been replaced by their aunts, mothers and even grandmothers, such is the desire by western men to get a bit of the other.
The bar is run by a chap who may have been the ‘fastest milkman in the west’ and I found that I knew the guys. Not only that I’m more than guessing that they were a little bit alarmed at my arrival because a few phone calls went out after I left.
But the cottage pie was great and so were the beers. One of them even prompted by me saying ‘I’m publishing tomorrow’.
My evening’s entertainment was rounded off by Anthony Hopkins, a former Watford Footballer, who admitted that he had been kissed full on the lips by Elton John. He then went on to talk about Samantha Fox, so we can guess which era he’s from…mine! I was going to tell how Elton had grabbed my *** in a bar in Hawaii in 1981, but the conversation needed to be elevated.
Anyway the point is this. Most of these lady boys and prostitutes are going to London willingly where they can earn up to £200 a trick I am told. Some couriers see this as a ‘social service’.
But not all are trafficked people, because that is what they are, are treated well. There have been cases of women being tricked completely. There have been beatings. They have to pay off massive debts first including presumably the services of the guys in Pattaya. So if anybody is planning to do one of these trips please ask your conscience first….and you never know the UKBA might just leap into action.
The ladyboys are quite good at making a disappearing trick.
Simple way to stop this call the Embassy in Bangkok. Only allow same airport transfers at LHR or LGW, there are sterile transfer lounges in both airports, don’t allow transfers between airports, also only allow one ticket not two separate tickets so the baggage will be checked in all the way to the final destination, if the bag arrives at the final destination with no passenger fine the airline, also UKBA hold the suitcase and open it if need be-jumpers packed then they are not going to Brasil. Send a link to this article to all airlines (I will make a start) that operate to/from the UK their legal departments will be on this overnight, I suggest within days/weeks they will stop checking in passengers who have onward travel from another airport, they are fined heavily if a passenger is denied entry into any country or if there is fraud it is their responsibility to ensure the passengers will not be denied entry and they will not risk it. Name and shame the airlines that are being used for this illegal trade and the UKBA will be forced to fine those airlines for transporting this illegal trade of humans. The cure will be front line, check in agents can be briefed in a minutes and if the system suspects anything then a supervisor is called in to approve check in.
If the boys in Pattaya bars think they are so smart and think they have found a way to enter the UK don’t you think Indian Nationals who are allowed to travel visa free to Jamaica, Haiti, Monsterat, Bermuda, El Salvador to name a few wouldn’t have tried this scam already ? the Embassy in Bangkok needs to send a message and they will inform airlines to be on the watch.
Thanks Andrew for bringing this trade out into the public eye between the Embassy, our MP’s and airlines we can bring this to an end.
I forgot to mention on the routing I mentioned the Thai lady boy or woman will actually check their luggage on to the final destination and can also be routed Bangkok – Singapore – London – Sao Paulo or Rio. When they arrive at Heathrow they have a checked bag ticket to show to UKBA as well. Their luggage contains nothing but cheap clothes or rubbbish and they arrive in UK with carry on luggage only. The ticket from Gatwick to South America can even be cancelled after take off from Singapore. So UKBA can and should actually check the bookings.
Andrew if you don't mind approving the link below so readers can submit a report linking this site and the UKBA can take action to close this loop hole and only allow LHR-LHR/LGW-LGW TWOV connections for Thai Nationals or provide sterile transport between the two airports.
https://report-ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/
As soon as the LB and courier (trafficker) arrive in Heathrow and the courier is paid then they part ways and the courier can do what he wants,often the next plane back to BKK.
The LB may also be escorted to Earls Court by the courier as this is where the arabs are.
Seems like a crazy loophole to me.
So you mean to say that the UKBA people manning the immigration desks just let them walk past? If a transit visa is required then surely this should be obtained prior to departure, without one the UKBA should send them back home.
I'm not sure I am 100% convinced about this Andrew to be honest, you wasn't chatting with some of Pattaya's former special forces soldiers were you?
The fact that the UK press don't want to know probably is because they don't believe it either.
Believe u me it works Lee. Ex-SAS apart look up the conditions for getting transit visa.
The poster above who mentions Earls Court is spot on (its cheaper than the Paddington Express) Whether the houses of ill repute are in EC I am not so sure. But there is a pub there they deliver to.
Lee it does happen, here is the deal.
In BKK/SIN/KL or wherever the passenger boards initially a document check is done, I provided a Timatic link that the airlines use. If the computer says Yes they allow them to board and consider the docs are in order. LHR/LGW/STN/LCY/LTN are all what they call common city codes under one umbrella LON. This allows fares to be common rated, the transfer between the airports is at the passengers expense. It only happens in a few airports worldwide Narita-Haneda/JKF-Lauguardia/San Francisco-Oakland/Paris CDG-ORY.
So if a passenger buys let's say British Airways BKK or SIN to LHR then either on the same ticket or another ticket a connection with BA to Tampa and then on AA to Latin America that flight departs from Gatwick.
That is under one ticket, now if these guys are buying two tickets on two different airlines one into LHR and the other to Latin America, all the check in agents needs to see is within 24 hours they are "scheduled" to depart the UK and the airline is off the hook for the penalty, and as Andrew reported they charm the UKBA agent and they are allowed to make their own way to LGW but instead do a runner.
Because it is no fault of the airline UKBA will authorise a TWOV on arrival and not send them back, these TWOV's cannot be obtained prior to departure, this is where the problem is and the rules have to be modified to allow TWOV's only same day departure in one airport.
If you look at France this is their TWOV policy "transit Without Visa (TWOV): Passing through an international transit area of the airport in order to board a connecting (or to proceed by the same) flight, without entering the country
(i.e. clearing immigration).
The French closed the loop hole.
All the more reason to do it, document and flog it then and you won't be breaking the law as long as the ladyboy doesn't do a runner of course. With this in mind as a loyal reader I scoured the beach road area till 7am this morning and found you a little cracker, her picture is here – http://tinyurl.com/b25hngj – have a great trip!
To verify the documents required you can use this tool which is exactly the same data check in agents use at the airport.
The UKBA has put more rules and conditions on Indian nationals as you can see if you enter India to Bermuda (BDA) no visa required for an Indian national transit UK, so in fact the UKBA can impose more rules and restrictions when these matters are brought to their attention. Reading between the lines they will allow transit IF the passenger is permitted entry to Canada/US etc in other words they closed the loop hole. The magic word is "administrative concession (TWOV)" I am not picking on our Indian friends I merely want to highlight the fact that the UKBA has the power to make such changes quickly and once reported. Airlines also encourage such rules as they don't want to be involved and potentially fined for transporting illegals.
http://www.staralliance.com/en/services/visa-and-health/
Good grief, why not just lock them up in dorms and shave their heads? zxjillions of female prostitutes getting in, FFS. Let the women they have a legit reason they are persecuted here quite harshly in every legal sense of the word.
The TWOV concession is available to several visa national states and their citizens. These are countries which do not manifest a trend for abuse according to statistics. Should the Thai abuse become significant then they will be DATV nationals who will require clearance even to transit airside.
Identifying bogus transit passengers is relatively simple and given the onus is on the passenger to satisfy the immigration officer as to intentions many in this category are refused entry and either returned to their country of origin or allowed to proceed onwards albeit under detention.
That the Thai are still permitted to transit the UK within 24 hours without a visa suggests there isn't a significant problem except I suppose in the minds of the press looking at it through the perspective of a distorted prism of ignorance.
The statistics would be interesting.
If this is such an organised operation, then no doubt every one of them will have packed a lonely planet guide to Brazil and a few other convincing documents like hotel reservations in Brazil which when you book with the likes of Agoda only forfeit the first night when you don't turn up. It a pretty serious loophole and needs exposing, Drummond you need to escort a Ladyboy(or even a lady) to Paddington station without a visa and show the UK how easy it is! Illegal Immigrants I thought were newsworthy!
I do not think the press have yet looked at this through the perspective of a distorted prism of ignorance Westerby. And if you are looking at the story here, well I am merely reporting that it has been done and to my knowledge continues.
Identifying bogus transit passengers is not relatively easy – as you say – they have their ticketing info, onward hotel bookingss etc and the UKBA can be sued for refusal.
Are you feeling a bit jaundiced today?
Andrew, not a criticism, merely a comment. It is actually fairly easy to identify bogus transit passengers. The problem is that it is not the job of the airlines to do so when the passenger boards at the first departure point, and that is where they should be stopped. Some airlines, and some airports, have dedicated document checking staff ( not the check-in agent) whose job it is to identify such passengers. Bogus transit passengers do fit into certain profiles, and should be identifiable from those profiles and "trends ( certain nationalities, certain flight routings, etc).