Asia Sentinel

Foreign tourists are targeted with false shoplifting accusations

Reports of an extortion ring targeting foreign tourists shopping at the duty-free shops in Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport is yet another threat to the country’s already fragile tourism industry, which has been devastated by the global economic recession and last year’s occupation of the airport by protesters. Internet chat boards and discussion forums have been buzzing with the tale and some European governments have warned travellers about the danger.

An investigation by the British Broadcasting Corporation revealed that passengers were being detained on bogus charges of shoplifting duty-free products and then faced extortion and intimidation by airport security and the police.  The reports have subsequently ricocheted across the world, with media organizations reporting a series of horror stories. 

King Power, which operates the duty-free shops, has denied any improprieties and posted videos online allegedly proving that customers actually were shoplifting. The company said in a statement that it had indeed been the victim of shoplifters on occasion and that reports on the Internet of extortion of tourists was a “false fact” that damaged the country and the company.

The Associated Press, however, reported that a British couple paid $11,000 to a middleman to secure their release after being accused of stealing a Givenchy wallet that was never found. The police and airport authorities denied any wrongdoing.

"We are quite concerned about this," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Vimon Kidchob said Thursday, according to the Associated Press. "The government of Thailand is doing everything we can to ensure the safety of tourists."

Nonetheless, the British Embassy in Bangkok has warned passengers at the Thai airport to take care and not to move items around in the duty-free shopping area before paying for them, as it could result in arrest and imprisonment. Other European countries have followed suit.

Thailand’s tourism industry in the past prospered because of its good reputation and Thai hospitality. This image has come crashing down because of an apparent criminal network inside Suvarnabhumi, which seems to have operated freely.

The extortion story stands almost as a metaphor for the benighted airport itself, which from the time the land for its construction was purchased in the 1970s under a military dictatorship has been tainted by allegations of corruption, some of which were used as a partial excuse for the September 2006 military coup that drove former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from office. It hasn’t stopped; the US Department of State recently released a report detailing corruption in the procurement of CTX bomb scanners.

Ironically, the airport, which was to have been a jewel in Thaksin’s crown of achievements, opened less than ten days after the September 19, 2006 coup tossed him out. Even before it opened the airport was criticised for bad design and poor-quality construction. When it opened it clearly wasn’t ready for prime time, with some of its toilets incomplete and the arrival area cramped. Taxi touts are an unseemly presence and the arrival area remains a nightmare to navigate. Missing tiles and taps in the toilets are evidence of poor maintenance and the facility pales in comparison to the efficiency of the airports in Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. Food and drink is overpriced and hard to find. There are not enough seating areas for passengers and the narrow departure area is lined with expensive shops but few amenities for travellers. It made some travellers long for the old cramped but navigable Don Muang airport.

There have also reports of criminal cases. In 2006, a female cashier working at a duty free shop left for a break. A few minutes later, 11 construction workers hit her on the head, and dragged her through a fire exit door and raped her. Early this year, a 24 year-old Irish male committed suicide by jumping from the top floor of the airport. For superstitious Thais, these cases only added bad omens.

Then there was the disastrous – from a tourism point of view – occupation of the airport by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) from November 25 to December 3, 2008. That protest, which successfully demanded that a pro-Thaksin elected government be removed, cost the airport, airlines and the country tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue and uncounted sums in lost prestige among tourists as 300,000 travellers were marooned for a week. Curiously, the police handled the protest with kid gloves, allowing the royalist PAD to turn Suvarnabhumi into a week-long Thai Woodstock.

Undeniably, Suvarnabhumi Airport represents a mini-Thailand, sullied by corruption, dark influences, cheating and a struggle for power and money. But what makes it even more undignified, is that those behind the airport’s criminal network have targeted tourists, thus internationalizing their notoriety at the expense of the country’s tourism sector.

The reality is that the law enforcement agencies seem reluctant to sort out the problem, and the longer it persists, the more damage will be done. If the detention of tourists continues, both foreign and Thai passengers would be wise to avoid the duty free shops.  

Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore

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Scams and the police
written by Reg , August 13, 2009

Thailand's police are the most corrupt and the most hated organization in the country. This is just one of their scams. That King Power is involved is interesting given the political connections to Newin Chidchob. The military's links through AOT also need to be investigated. These stories just indicate how bad Thailand has become in recent years. Ironically, when Thaksin was accused of corruption and ousted, this move allowed the police, military and their political allies to come back and begin shoveling loot into their coffers.

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Tourist trap Suvarnabumi airport
written by GERD , August 11, 2009

no surprise there, the level of corruption at Suvarnabumi airport between the police, the airport officials and the employees of King Power has turned the airport into a place, where tourist shall quickly run through it without touching anything. Unfortunatly that advice is still valid once you escaped the airport into Bangkok....

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Bangkok airport
written by Leosia , August 11, 2009

"The reality is that the law enforcement agencies seem reluctant to sort out the problem." This is because they are the ones causing and benefiting from the problem. There have been over 200 cases of "shoplifting" this year. We are talking in the region of 45-60 million baht being paid in cash to the police. As the chairman of the AOT said a few weeks ago regarding the other scams in the airport, notably hyper-inflated taxi rides: it's difficult to do anything about these scams because the people involved are related to/connected with AOT employees!

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Bangkok airport scam
written by Leosia , August 11, 2009

"The reality is that the law enforcement agencies seem reluctant to sort out the problem." This is because they are the ones causing and benefiting from the problem. There have been over 200 cases of "shoplifting" this year. We are talking in the region of 45-60 million baht being paid in cash to the police. As the chairman of the AOT said a few weeks ago regarding the other scams in the airport, notably hyper-inflated taxi rides: it's difficult to do anything about these scams because the people involved are related to/connected with AOT employees!

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You are not alone
written by Lao Zhang , August 10, 2009

First I thought only in poor places like China or Africa local people try to trap visitors, now some countries are even better in deceiving outsiders

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Canoe & Kayaking
written by Robert Jones , August 10, 2009

What a facinating article. I’m looking for a marketing expert to help with a project, could you help? Please come visit my site Hikes when you got time.

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