Hope for jailed Jerseyman
Friday 29th January 2010, 2:56PM GMT.
A fund has been started to help Peter Burr return home
THE nightmare of a Jerseyman being held indefinitely in a notorious Bangkok detention centre could soon be over.
Friends and former employers of Peter Burr have started a fund to pay the cost of a ticket to get him home. The painter and decorator was arrested by Thai immigration authorities on 11 November and has been incarcerated in a mosquito-filled and crowded concrete cell ever since.
As reported by the JEP this week, Mr Burr, who is believed to be in his 40s, was charged with not having a passport and for visa irregularities. He was sentenced to two weeks in jail and then transferred to the Immigration Detention Centre, which is in the grounds of the Royal Thai Immigration Bureau, Suan Phlu Road.
After reading Wednesday’s JEP, Mr Burr’s former employer Tony Le Tiec, of PBS office equipment suppliers, contacted the paper to say that he would put £400 towards the cost of getting him home. His friends have also chipped in and it is thought that the unofficial fund is now close to being able to afford the air ticket needed.
Phil Volante, another former employer, said that the FCO had informed him that Peter would need £650 to get home and to pay money due in Thailand and to the FCO. Anyone who wants to help out can email peterburrsfund@hotmail.co.uk.
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They say “a fool and their money are soon parted”….sounds to me like there are a few fools herep.
This guy was charged with not having a passport and for visa irregularities – more fool him and more fool the people parting with their hard earned cash.
This guy obviously knew what he was doing yet still went ahead and did it….he must have known the consequences he would face.
There are far more deserving charities who could do with the money people are putting up for this man.
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(FAO Unbelievable)
I recommend you read a book called ‘The Damage Done’. You would without a doubt look at the situation from a different perspective.
Adios!
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Unbelievable!
I fully agree with what you said. Foolish actions indeed. He broke the rules, he should live with them.
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This Peter Burr, so called Jerseyman, what’s his home parish? What help is being offered by his connétable and other worthes of his parish or is he just another impot who has no true connect with the island other than since he arrived on the ferry a few years ago he now feels entitled to call himself a Jerseyman? It could be that since the British Government are unwilling to bail him out of his predicament then stating that he lived in Jersey for a number of years opens another avenue for cash! Let’s have some facts, what school did he attend, where is the scramble from his old classmates and friends to fill his begging bowl? Let’s have the facts!
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I have read the book The Damage Done by Warren Fellows, an Australian who served many years in jail for importing heroin into Thailand from India if memory serves me correct; It was a long time ago I read it.
Bang Kwang Prison is indeed a pretty grim place, the conditions appalling, and the treatment of the prisoners borders on sadistic.
However, Warren fellows was a drug trafficker who knew the risks, so no sympathy there.
Returning to the matter of Peter Burr, I have every sympathy of having lost a passport. I have travelled extensively around this beautiful panet of ours, Years spent in South and Central America, Africa, India, Asia, the middle east and south east asia. I have had more than my fair share of scrapes, some of those scrapes being in countries far more hostile than Thailand.
The difference being is taking responsibility in case of these situations. Where was Mr Burr’s insurance and emergency funding. If his passport was stolen, why did he not report it at the time of the theft in which case he would have recieved help with getting a new one.
No passport, overstaying your visa, that sounds a little more than bad luck or an innocent mistake to me.
I’d alo like to ask the question, if he was so penniless, how was he able to afford to travel around Asia. If he hadn’t lost his passport or overstayed his visa, how was he intending to get home, unless of course these weren’t his intentions!
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Big Bean #5
No need for me to comment, You have said all that is necessary.
I too have been there an done that. To travel without the “emergency stash” (even an unused credit card just to get you home) is foolhardy to say the least.
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4 Exiled St Ouennais – you are a racist. Your post smacks of the attitude that is still rife in this island of ‘ahh but youre not Jersey eh!!’. Dont donate any money, no one is making you. This island would be nothing without all those ‘imports’ you speak of.
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I must agree with darren…the “jersey” should stop discriminating all “imports”. Some of these “imports” serve the community in finer ways than the “jersey” are accustomed to doing..
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In response to EXILED ST OUENNAIS,I went to school with Peter Burr in JERSEY 1974-79 at Le Rocquier. This guy deserves all the help the Jersey goverment should be doing for him.No one should go through what pete has over the last few months.I for one hope he is back where he belongs in Jersey safe and well.
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No government should pay for feckless travellers who get themselves into a mess overseas. No one ‘needs’ to go abroad for a holiday, it is a luxury. You make sure you do not lose your passport, many are stolen, many are sold when travellers run out of cash. You report the theft to the British Embassy.
You do not travel without a return ticket, you do not travel without insurance and sufficient cash to cover your expenses. And has been said above, in many parts of the world you have to be careful not to offend the authorities/police – all the world is not like the UK/Jersey.
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