A prank

Swiss not allowed to travel to Thailand for 99 years

The deckchairs of Swiss tourists remain empty for the time being.

(Bild: Kronen Zeitung)

Numerous Swiss citizens were banned from Thailand - because a Ländle consul from Dornbirn (Vorarlberg) issued false visas.

This story can hardly be topped in terms of bizarreness and is also a first-class prank: several dozen Swiss nationals, many of them retired, are no longer allowed to travel to Thailand, even though they have houses, friends, family members and cars there. The Thai authorities played it safe and imposed the entry ban for 99 years - hardly any of those affected are likely to survive.

50 Swiss affected
As reported by Blick, around 50 Swiss people have now joined together in a WhatsApp group to oppose the ban. Because the pensioners have done absolutely nothing wrong. Their bad luck was that the position at the Thai honorary consulate in Dornbirn was occupied by Justus M. until recently.

The authority was responsible for visa applications from Switzerland. However, Justus M., who has since been convicted of forging documents, took a "shortcut" with the applications. Instead of sending them to Bern with a little more effort, he sent them to Vienna and simply turned the Swiss into Austrians.

No access to the plane
The affair was discovered in Thailand, and one of the unsuspecting victims was even - unglamorously - locked up in a dungeon in the vacation paradise. The Swiss are very annoyed. "We were not allowed to enter the Flugi at Zurich airport," says Paula Fuster (70) angrily, while others were "caught" in Thailand and had to leave the country within twelve hours. The Swiss embassy has been trying for months to get the blacklist lifted - but so far in vain.