Phuket’s 20 or so volunteers – the number remaining after five quit over the issue – met with the new Commander of Kathu Police, Pol Col Sakchai Limcharoen, and the former commander Pol Col Jirapat Pachanapan. Another meeting is also planned for next week.
Wal Brown, the head co-ordinator of the Region 8 International Volunteers group had earlier told The Phuket News that he was tired of being subjected to “shady situations”, and the 20 volunteers had stopped work for around two weeks.
“The International Volunteers had a problem where a tourist was ordered to pay B20,000 more than the original compensation for damage to a room because he asked for assistance from a volunteer.
“The tourist was also threatened with a greater fine and jail if he were to talk with the volunteer again.
“This is one of a number of issues where the International Volunteers have been used against a tourist.
Col Sakchai told The Phuket News yesterday the group had now “worked things out” and denied the alleged incident was corruption.
“It’s a miscommunication between the police,” he said.
Col Sakchai said that usually, police would deal with criminal law. When an incident became a civil case, or involving a settlement over money, police would exclude themselves from it, and pass the case to a lawyer.
Col Sakchai said when the volunteers wanted to help in this particular case, the Thai police didn’t know how to explain it in English.
“So, it looked like the Thai police were involved in some sort of money corruption but actually it wasn’t. They just wanted to pass the case to someone else, and exclude themselves from this money situation, and they wanted the volunteers to stop trying. That’s all.
“Before, there might have been a misunderstanding which meant the volunteers felt like they were being ignored by the Thai police. Wal Brown was upset because sometimes the Thai police don’t listen to him. I think he has a reason to be angry because he’s a volunteer who helps without getting any benefits in return and he is willing to work.
“But sometimes Thai police officers are moved often [to other regions or positions], and not all the Thai police can speak English well and this can create misunderstandings. Sometimes, the Thai law and the law of the Western countries can be different. This problem happened because there’s no communication.
“Now I’m in charge at Kathu Police Station, I won’t let this situation happen again. From now on, the police and volunteers will talk to each other more so we have a better working environment. We have encouraged the volunteer team and now Mr Brown is back with us, the same as before.”
Col Sakchai said volunteers were a dedicated group of people who helped with security and helped out tourists. This was of great benefit to the Thai police, because often they could not communicate well in English with the tourists, plus many of the volunteers also spoke other languages too.
Wal Brown told The Phuket News yesterday that there were always problems that arose in every enterprise, and it didn’t matter whether you were working with the police or with other groups.
“We will work out how to stop the problems that do exist.
“We didn’t strike, but we did stop working. For the two weeks that we were not working, we were waiting to solve the problems, and to meet with Col Jirapat. We will work more closely in the future.”
Mr Brown said the five volunteers who quit over the incident may come back in the future, and that he would talk to them.
“We decided that we will look at our procedure a bit more closely too, so that we can work together better.”