Smoking Joe Conrad wrote: ↑Sun Nov 10, 2019 10:28 am A large fine, calculated on a price per day of his overstay, which if he can’t pay will mean some prison time.

This will be followed by languishing in the IDC whilst his embassy arranges a temporary passport (if he no longer has one) along with paying for his flight home at the expense of his country’s tax payer. He will then be banned from returning for at least 5 years.

This happened to me in Thailand although my overstay was only a few weeks so my prison time and IDC stay was also only a few weeks. My fine was also tiny.

I guess 8 years might slow down the whole process. Also it depends where he is from. I am a UK passport holder and my embassy were extremely proactive in getting me home as quickly as possible.

(This was helped by the fact I was extremely ill which is why the situation occurred in the first place. My embassy arranged for a doctor to travel home with me and another guy from England who was senile and had somehow popped down to the shops at home in Manchester and wound up in Bangkok.)

Whilst in the IDC in Bangkok I was told the UK got it’s citizens out of there faster than anyone. It might be different in Cambodia. The US was surprisingly slow but still better than most. There were several Eastern Europeans and Russians who had been in there for months (and in a few cases years) waiting for their embassy to get on the case and pay for the flight home.

Also if your mate is African expect much worse treatment and very slow processing time. The African cell in Thailand was totally dark, way over crowded with no fans and even worse toilet facilities. The white boys cage at least had lights and fans. Scandalous and overt racism in my book made worse by Thailand presenting itself as a developed country and ‘the land of smiles’. I have never much liked Thailand and was only there for medical treatment that turned out to be woefully inept.

If your mate can get a family member to pay the fine and the flight home he will be processed very quickly and be out of there in no time at all.

Whilst I didn’t witness any violence in the IDC conditions are pretty terrible and it’s not the kind of place you want to be in for long.

Either way your mate has fucked up and has some shit times incoming.