Thaksin and Pojaman apply for asylum in England

Fugitive ex-PM Thaksin and wife apply for asylum : UK Home Office

Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife, Pojaman, are seeking political asylum in Britain, the UK Home Office confirmed.

It is understood that the UK Home Office is considering their request, UK media reported.

Both are on the run after being wanted in Thailand on on several corruption-related charges.

Thaksin and his wife fled from Bangkok to London after jumping bails. Thai officials issued arrest warrants on them.

After fleeing, Thaksin sold his Manchester City Football Club to an Abu Dhabi group for 210 million pounds,

-- The Nation 2008-10-06

Thaksin Shinawatra seeking political asylum in Britain

Former Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra is seeking political asylum in Britain.

The Home Office has confirmed the ex-Thailand Prime Minister, 59, and his wife Pojaman have both applied to stay.

They returned here in August after skipping a Bangkok court hearing, prompting Thai officials to issue arrest warrants.

Dr Shinawatra, who last month sold the Premier League to an Abu Dhabi group for £210million, was ousted from power in a military coup in 2006.

He faces probes over alleged corruption and abuse of power. In July his wife was sentenced to three years for evading taxes. Dr Shinawatra, who denies any wrongdoing, has said he feels he cannot get a fair trial in Thailand and fears for his life.

--Sunday Mirror UK, 2008-10-05

They let everybody else live in the UK,Terrorists,etc,so why not two on the run as well.
I am sure our stupid government will give them a British Passport,and of course 24 hour Police protection,not forgetting they will be able too claim every State Benefit going,all at our taxpayers expense.
Send them both back to Thailand too face the music.

I'll publicly burn my UK passport outside the Bangkok Embassy if they are granted asylum.

Here here.

To quote myself from the other thread when the news was first posted:

"It's not like the UK isn't accustomed to granting asylum to criminals, very much like Canada."

we all saw this one coming

But give us a bit of advance notice please, so we can be there to take the pictures

PS: I understand your [future, upcoming] disappointment

Thaksins move comes as no great surprise and I am sure his legal team have already laid the groundwork for a successful application. Its also well known that the UK will just about take anyone in otherwise he would have gone somewhere else. Another sad day for Thailand.

It was a lot more interesting when girls burnt bras to protest.

conversation with UK visas...

"yes sir, I understand you want a visa. Exactly what type of visa would you like.If you want a tourist visa I must ask have you visited here 3 times in the last 6 months? Oh well, that's no good. I know that's ridiculous, sir. Shall we try a business visa? Ok. You need to return to your country to get the correct visa to start the process. You're not keen on going back there at the moment. Ok. Maybe we can start the visa from here. Do you have partners in your business? Oh, you don't need any because you are rich. Well, your business will have to be owned 51% by British Nationals. You don't trust any British Nationals and why would you want other people owning more than half of your business. Don't ask me sir, I only work here. Marriage visa maybe? Have you had 80,000 pounds sat in a British bank for the last 3 months and never allowed it to go less than that amount. Note, sir, that money will need to stay in the bank for an undetermined length of time because we want to check if you borrowed of one of your friends. Oh, you don't have any friends now.OK. Please don't shout sir, it is considered rude. What about an investment visa? Ah, you like the sound of that. Good. Do you have any property in this country sir? Excellent. Are more than half the people who live in you street British? Not sure.OK, well they would need to be. I imagine you could knock all their doors to find out , sir. I'm not certain how poplular that would be. You did buy the property new, did you sir? Oh, secondhand.Ah. Oh wait i forgot ,they have cancelled the investment visa. Yes sir, I do know what I am doing. May I suggest you nip on a cheap flight to Singapore,but they can be tricky, or KL, but they can also ask for a lot of paperwork,or possibly Penang, and get a single entry there.Once you get over there is an airline called Air Asia, I doubt you have heard of it. Oh you have heard of it. Please stop swearing, sir. Well they are a bit cheap and nasty, but you can bounce round on them until you find a way back. Thank you sir, but I will not do that to myself. Thank you and goodbye."

i put this up a couple of years ago in http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Thaksin-requ...ml&p=941332

seems to have come round again..asylum this time tho...

Can he take his followers with him as well? And the whole PPP lot, and the government as well. They all suffer from the same persecution.

Wonder how we can email the Home Office to register our shock and horror? Not that they will pay a blind bit of attention, I guess HM Inland Revenue are rubbing their hands at the percentage they will make on the 3 billion baht profit on his sale of Man City coz I would somehow doubt any of that will get back to Thailand. Seriously though it may start an element of anti British feeling which we can do without, maybe we should email HE the Ambassador in Bangkok ???

I want the home office to give them passports and hope they pump some of that 200+million into the UK economy.

Cause and effect: The cause: Granting the thug political asylum. The effect: I shan't set foot in Brittan ever again. With thugs like Taksin running around the streets have become to dangerous.

i hope the extra judical killings are relevant to the british gov.

This in my opinion is a good thing because the Thai government can not begin the extradition process before the 'travelling Taksin show' applies for political asylum in the UK.
Another consideration in this case is to whether the Thai government really want them back in Thailand. You can ask the question as to why they were allowed to travel to China for the Olympics whilst they were still on bail? The government knew that they would not return. This was maybe seen as a good solution to the problem for both parties if the Taksin's were out of the way.
Either way they should be brought back to face the charges as i think that the political asylum status will cause tensions between the two governments. The PAD will have a field day with this one.

Cheers, Rick

Criminal fugitive in one country, human rights refugee in another - someone's gotta be wrong.

Hey why wasn't Gary Glitter, a resident of Britain, given this kind of treatment? Even if he did do the nasty stuff (quite likely) the process that convicted him was surely corrupt.

Interesting that he did this step AFTER the Arrest of Chamlong Srimuang!

Any Connections here?

Mybe our stupid government should think about changing Great Britain to ASYLUM BRITIAN as they seem to help everyone else but there own,

Old saying charity begins at home, Our goverment seem to have forgoten this

one day there will be no true british left here

Oh dear here we go again. England = Britain = UK. England = England.
Sad that English people are the only nationality in the world who do not know their own country's name or borders.

And even more relevant this time

Inform me I will happy clap hand.
Maybe you then you can ask for Asylum in Thailand. Maybe when you get a new one u burn it when the put the big PAD thugs in the slammer. Then you have 9 chances. happy bonfire

Two thoughts/questions here...

1. How does one claim political persecution when one's own party controls the government and one's brother-in-law is prime minister???

2. What status is he in Britain on now??? And if they don't grant asylum, what difference would it make? He's there already...they're not going to kick him out, and it would seem, the Thai govt isn't even going to try to extradite him on the various charges....

Please ensure you posta picture here to prevent the rest of us thinking you are quite tollay.