A Briton has been arrested in Thailand after overstaying his 30-day visa by more than 25 years.
The man, who is now 60 years old, arrived in Thailand on a short-term tourist visa on 9 January 2000, before evading Thai authorities for the following 25 years. Thai police said it was a “record” visa overstay, smashing the previous record of a Pakistani man who overstayed his visa by 10 years, according to AFP news agency.
On Monday, the unidentified man was arrested by the immigration division in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand’s largest city, where he had lived for the past 12 years, a Facebook post from the city’s immigration authorities read.
During his first 13 years in Bangkok, the man built a life with a Thai woman with whom he has a child, police said. They moved to Chiang Mai 12 years ago for economic reasons, but the man does not have a job and lives off money from his family in Britain, police said.
He avoided arrest by Thai authorities for 9,135 days before his arrest - but will now be deported back to the United Kingdom as part of a crackdown by immigration police. His name is being withheld as police look into how he was able to stay for so long in the country.
The man confessed that he did not apply for an extension of his visa after his first permit arrived, the post said. But he successfully applied for a renewed passport in 2018, police said.
“The individual was taken to the investigation officer at Chiang Mai City Police Station for legal proceedings and awaiting deportation back to the country of origin,” a post on the Chiang Mai Immigration Facebook page said.
He has been charged with “being a foreigner who entered and stayed in the Kingdom after the permit expired”.
Police in Chiang Mai found the man while inspecting locations in the city at risk of hosting foreigners without legal permits in the country.
The northern city where he was caught is the second largest city in Thailand, with a population of around 1.2 million people.
