455 M’sians held in Thai prisons

More than 90% of inmates incarcerated for drug offences

BANGKOK: There are now 455 Malaysians in Thai prisons with more than 90% of them serving sentences related to drug offences.

Halmah Hassan, Second Secretary (Consular) in the Malaysian Embassy here, said some of them were jailed for credit card-related offences.

“There are 196 Malaysians held in five prisons around Bangkok and seven other prisons in provinces north of Bangkok. Another 259 Malaysians are imprisoned in southern Thailand,” she said.

She said the Malaysians in Thai prisons were serving various types of sentences, including death or life imprisonment. Seven of the 196 were women. Five women are at the Central Women’s Correctional Institute in Chatuchak while the other two are at the Chiang Mai Women’s Correctional Institution.

Halmah said the embassy was monitoring the welfare of the Malaysian inmates in prisons in Bangkok and in the north.

The Malaysian consulate in Songkhla is monitoring the welfare of Malaysians imprisoned in southern Thailand, she added.

Embassy officials, she said, would make scheduled visits to all the Malaysian inmates to monitor their well-being.

“If there are Malaysian inmates in Chiang Mai, which is located thousands of kilometres north of Bangkok, we will still visit them,” she said, adding that it was part of the responsibility of Malaysian missions abroad.

Halmah said specific action would be taken if there were complaints from Malaysian inmates, including contacting the prison authorities.

The embassy, she said, also received applications from Malaysian detainees who wanted to be moved to prisons in southern Thailand to make it easier for their families to visit them.

She said Malaysian prisoners to be released from Thai prisons would be issued travel documents which would enable them to return home. — Bernama