By Harry53 - 6 Jan 24 12:12 PM
Hello to you all (y'all if American!!)
I have been planning a trip to Thailand and am packed ready to flu in 2 weeks. I have travelled recently to Singapore then HCM, (late 22), then to Hanoi in summer 23. No problems. I had not been to Thailand for 10 years, and that was before my SOR and offence started.
I had a call from my new PPU officer saying the Asean countries have set in place tighter control at borders for sex offenders. This devastated me as I was about to travel and I thought I can never travel to Asia again. It is such a wonderful part of the world, and I love making videos for my YouTube channel Harry's Happenings. It is a big part of my life. Well, the agreement was set in August 23 and it is called Project Guestship. There is zero on the net so I needed to see what the risk was. If I travelled and got denied entry and sent home, I would have to explain to friends, and that is not easy. It would destroy me if I had to tell people my crime back in 2016. Having a tag on the passport is the problem and draws attention to immigration.
So I called Unlock.
The lovely guy explained the probability and of course, I knew the consequences, never to be able to visit Thailand in the future, and exposing my secret. So as my SOR expires in April 2026 he suggested I wait, and stay away from Asia, until then. So I was very relieved at this suggestion and it works.
So thank you whoever you were in calming a very emotional and upset guy, and showing me the way forward. I am 70 and love travelling to different cultures, to lose that would have been life changing.
All I have to do now, as I am not going (on the 16th jan 24) is to feign Covid the day before. that way, it is accepted I cannot go !!!
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By JASB - 6 Feb 24 3:24 PM
Hi
After my arrest and prior to my plea I checked with my solicitor and Police and they allowed me to do a 3 month SE Asia backpacking holiday; Thailand, Malaysia, cambodia, vietnam Laos.
After my plea (guilty) I asked the PO rep who was in the Court if I could go back to see extended family as it would be circa a year before my sentencing. He said yes but as soon as i registered on the SOR in london the Police were not happy! They interviewed me for an hour even though it was obvious they knew nothing about my case, tried to intimidate me by bring about 7 officers into the room and ignored the info provided to them by my solicitor over the phone.
In the end they kept my passport, took me to court demanding I be put on remand and my passport retained as they said I was doing a runner.
In Court the Judge actually questioned me and actually thanked me for my honesty.
I wasn't put on remand but even a year later when the same Judge told the Police to give me my passport back they suddenly couldn't find it!
To be honest my info is that Thailand etc are getting very restrictive on who comes in so I have decided I will never be going back and grateful for the memories of the wonderful sights, experiences of those countries especially the people!
I would suggest you maybe best doing the same my friend. Take care and just be happy with what you can do that is less stressful.
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