Airport visa goof-up in holiday horror

Calcutta: A US-based Nepalese homemaker headed for a holiday in Thailand via Calcutta was cleared for boarding at the city airport despite not holding a Thai visa, leaving her to face 18 hours of detention in Bangkok before she was deported.
Tsomala Lama, 33, has accused Thai Airways and immigration officials at the city airport of misleading her into thinking that she was eligible for the tourist visa-on-arrival facility at Suvarnabhumi and other airports in Thailand.
“No official at the Thai Airways or immigration counter told me that a passenger passing through a third country doesn’t qualify for a visa on arrival, irrespective of nationality,” she told Metro on Monday, recounting the holiday that went horribly wrong.
On discovering that she was not carrying a visa, officials at Suvarnabhumi airport had threatened her with indefinite detention and a fine of $10,000.
A senior immigration official said California resident Tsomala, who holds a Nepalese passport and an American green card, wouldn’t have got a tourist visa on arrival in Bangkok even if she had travelled directly from the US. “Thailand doesn’t offer that facility to some countries, including Nepal. Since the lady holds a Nepalese passport, she would need to apply for and get a visa either in Nepal or the US, where she enjoys permanent residency,” he added.
If Tsomala was ignorant about the Thai visa rule, what about the officials who allowed her to board the Bangkok flight on Saturday night? Vutichai Kampanartsanyakorn, the city-based general manager of Thai Airways, said: “This is surprising. I will look into the matter. Even if our staff gave her a boarding pass, she should have been stopped at immigration.”
21/09/10 Sanjay Mandal/The Telegraph

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Categories: airports Sep 2010, Foreign Sep 2010