Hello Everybody I am a new member just joined.
I am a 59 year old British citizen who has lived and worked in S.E. Asia for over
twenty five years. I have been married to a Thai citizen for twenty years. Three years ago I was diagnosed
with cataracts on both eyes and double vision. I attended three different and independent medical institutes
who all provided me with identical results, so there remains no doubt in my mind that the diagnosis is
accurate and correct.
Unable to continue working my resources and savings were exhausted during 2015. At this
point I was forced to vacate my rented accommodation and go and live upon the land of my wife's parents,
situated in a tiny farming village in the North of Thailand.
My relationship with my wife has always been remarkably close in a marriage that I thought had stood the test
of time. However, since our arrival at her parents house the relationship has disintegrated into something
today that is bordering upon personal abuse. She first advised me twelve months ago that our marriage was over
and has been demanding that I leave ever since. I do not reside with her, she lives in her Mother's house
while I remain a virtual prisoner due to my visual disability in a 4 meter X 4 meter block out building with
open spaces for windows and doors where the dirt flies in. The conditions in which I have lived for two
years I consider to be inhumane, I would most certainly be breathing cleaner air if I were living in the
street. I can provide pictures or video should anyone wish to see.
I have remained here because I am devoted to the three Old English Sheepdogs that I have kept for four years.
My wife being wholly incapable of taking care and looking after these dogs.
Unfortunately, my wife has informed me that her family are now "considering" paying people to physically remove
me. This means that I now exist under a constant shadow of fear.
I possess a valid retirement visa.
I have been able to generate a very small amount of money working on the internet each month approximately 100 USD which has had to
suffice for the cost of my internet connection 25 USD per month and providing something to eat for my dogs and
myself. It is never enough I am always in a position of having no money.
In the coming days at sometime around about the 10th/12th of January 2018 I am expecting an unusually large
payment of some 300 USD. My wife who is aware that this payment is coming but does not know the exact date,
is already demanding money from me.
There is no way I will have enough money to purchase a new retirement visa when my existing visa expires Which means by remaining in Thailand
in overstay I risk ending up in a Thai prison.
The larger payment I am receiving is a one off, it actually represents two years of part time work. I have a
very simple choice go now or don't go at all. I am more than well aware that a door behind me is closing and
that if I do not turn and run for that door it is going to be too late.
As soon as the money arrives or a day or two after I will break out of here at midnight, it is imperative
that my wife does not know of my departure. My destination will be Bangkok.
This is not the first time I have done this. On the 2nd December 2017 I broke out of here at midnight with
just 50 USD in my pocket. I reached Bangkok but of course my money quickly finished. I had sent an emergency
email to the British Consulate in Bangkok, one week earlier, advising that I had little choice but to apply for emergency
repatriation.
To this day one month later ... I never even received the courtesy of a response.
In Bangkok I attended the British Embassy in person. The treatment I received there was not only
Highly Incompetent and Rude it was a Disgrace.
I was shocked.
I was sent out into the night half blind, alone, carrying heavy luggage in the middle of Bangkok with 6 USD the
British Embassy had afforded me for a taxi having assured me it was sufficient. The first two Taxis I stopped
asked for 30 USD.
I finally arrived at my destination 4 hours later via a taxi that had also asked for 30 USD but took pity upon
me and settled for 6 USD.
I was dumped into the center for 'Beggars and the Destitute' when I asked the British Embassy official how long
I would have to stay there I was informed "3 days"
By the commencement of the 7th day nobody from the British Embassy had bothered to contact me via the
telephone. It was as if I didn't even exist anymore.
Remarkably, I have never owned a mobile telephone. I befriended the cleaning lady and asked her to send a text
message to my wife, that I would return to Thailand to collect my dogs and take them back to the UK as soon as
I possibly could.
The next day my wife telephoned the cleaning lady and informed me that one of my dogs had stopped eating, was
losing weight rapidly and would I return to the North of Thailand as she might die if I did not.
Foolish, but entirely devoted to these dogs I never had a choice. I discharged myself and returned back to
Northern Thailand. Whereupon I found that my wife had lied to me, there was nothing wrong with my dog, she was
eating perfectly normally.
However, my first venture to Bangkok was not in vain. I managed to contact very high profile Attorneys from
the Office of Public Prosecution where I had worked ten years earlier. They very quickly agreed to
purchase me an air ticket to return to the UK.
Upon this my second attempt to get back to the UK I shall entirely bypass the sheer incompetence of the
British Embassy and re establish contact with my Thai friends.
I find it a disgrace that I have to go begging to Thai people to get me home when my own so called Government
will do nothing for me.
At the home where I stayed for 7 days there was in my room an application form issued by the Canadian Government for
Canadian citizens wishing to request financial assistance from the Government.
I was offered no such option.
I am most certainly within the eyes of the UK ... A Most Unwanted Arrival.
Unfortunately, things only get worse.
Due to a set of unique circumstances I have no family.
At the end of World War II my Father married a German girl in Berlin and upon his return to the UK in 1945 he was
Expelled from the family for having brought disgrace to the family by marrying ... a Nazi !!
Emotions were high at this time, everybody had lost a son or more.
I never met or knew any of the Uncles, Aunts, cousins etc etc from my Father's side of the family.
My Mother came from a small town on the Polish border called 'Nice' At the point of the advancing Red Army
and what was known to be happening to 19 year old German girls, my Mother fled to Berlin where she thought
her chances were better with The British and The Americans. Of course my Mother's home town and most of her
family were swallowed up by what became Eastern Germany. I always remember her saying to me that while she
could have got in they would never have allowed her to leave. My Mother did not see her family again for over
35 years. Likewise I never knew an Auntie, Uncle etc etc.
My combined family was my Mother, my Father and my Brother. My Father died of lung cancer in approximately
1982 within 5 years my brother was killed in an air crash in Canada and my Mother died in 2010 of old age.
I am totally alone.
In the past two years I have searched frantically on the internet to try and find someone I once knew,
but have failed.
I shall, I hope, find myself standing in the Arrivals at Heathrow Airport, with no money, with nobody to meet
me, with nowhere to go, with eyesight so bad I am restricted to blurry vision of about 20 meters, after which everything just
becomes a grey fog. Trying to get across busy roads is like playing Russian Roulette vehicles fly out of the grey
soup that is my field of vision it is a very dangerous position. There will be nobody I can telephone in a
country in which I am unwanted.
... and that is my best case scenario.
I am expecting that I will have to sleep in the streets,
I have known this for a long time. In my first attempt to break out from here, my luggage was 80 pct full with
two duvet covers ready for sleeping rough in a UK winter. I expect my second attempt to be the same. I'm
bringing my bed with me !!
It is a major worry that what little possessions I have will be stolen. Another concern is how will
I be able to visit all of the places I will have to visit, like social services, citizens advice etc etc. As
I discovered from my first aborted attempt my luggage was incredibly heavy. There will be nowhere to safely leave this luggage.
I already know that social services will say, "there is nothing we can do, a decision has to be made about
you and that might take 6 months"
The truth is, I have no interest in handouts and benefits, I would like to get my eyes fixed up and start
working, that is the way to get myself back on my feet, it is also the way I might be able to save these poor dogs
whom I love with all of my heart.
I am so very sorry that my story is so long and for your time that I have used. I am just hoping by including
so many details that somebody will appreciate how hopeless and desperate my plight has become.
I blame nobody other than myself for the situation I now find myself in. We are all responsible for where
we choose to place ourselves and that which we choose to do. However, it is my belief that at various points
in the lives of all people we all need the assistance of another person. I believe I have reached one of those
points in my life.
I am able to use the computer by utilizing the magnifying tool in Windows 7 at 600 pct.
I would appreciate any form of advice that you might be able to offer me.
Kindest Regards
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