Despite severe overcrowding characterising Thailand’s immigration detention facilities, the GDP has been unable to find any reports indicating that authorities have taken steps to protect, or release, immigration detainees.
While the country has drafted measures which remove the need for foreign tourists, stuck in the country due to airline cancellations, to apply for visa extensions, migrant workers in the country must continue to regularly report to immigration authorities. New legislation, meanwhile, requires foreigners entering the country to show medical certificates stating that they have tested negative for Covid-19, as well as evidence of health insurance coverage. Those arriving without such paperwork risk detention and deportation.
All visits to prisons have been suspended from 18 to 31 March 2020. Families can bring money and food to prisoners but may not enter the premises. On 29 March 2020, fears of the virus’s uncontrolled spread within prisons prompted inmates held in Buriram Prison to protest their confinement. During the ensuing violence, several persons escaped.
- Bangkok Post, “Immigration Bureau Pursues Visa Relief for Foreigners,” 6 April 2020, www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1893780/immigration-bureau-pursues-visa-relief-for-foreigners
- G. Pulitzer, “Foreigners Without Health Certificates, Insurance Being Turned Away at Thai Airports,” The Thaiger, 25 March 2020, https://tinyurl.com/sz5r565
- K. Laohong, and C. Seehawong, “All Prisons Closed to Visitors March 18-3,” Bangkok Post, 18 March 2020, www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1881255/all-prisons-closed-to-visitors-march-18-31
- Channel News Asia, “Covid-19 Fears Spark Thailand Prison Riot,” 29 March 2020, https://tinyurl.com/qk5nq9h
- Global Detention Project, Immigration Detention in Thailand, www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/asia-pacific/thailand
