OPINION

Impossible dream

According to local media reports, foreign property owners are now allowed to return to Thailand.

Only if they subject themselves to extortion. Only if they have the resources to solve the complexity of the Rubic's Cube of Thai bureaucratic regulations. Only if they can overcome what is logistically impossible.

The trumpery of the announcement lacks even a modicum of empathy for foreigners stranded abroad, desperate to get back to their legally purchased homes in Thailand.

Who travels with their proof of ownership documents or has bank statements sent to them during an overseas vacation? No one, unless with criminal intent.

Many foreign owners have their life savings invested in their Thailand condo.

Is the egregious demand for further deposits of three million baht in Thai banks and proof of having the equivalent amount of 500,000 baht in a foreign bank account designed to subjugate and humiliate foreign property owners? Can't comply? What's next? Confiscation? It is cause for fear.

Meanwhile, uninhabited properties are deteriorating but common property and maintenance fees are having to be paid. Belts, shoes, leather products and clothes are growing mildew. Medical and eye specialist appointments are being missed.

Foreign property owners should be welcomed back immediately to Thailand on current valid retirement visas with re-entry permits plus a medical certificate confirming they are Covid-19 free.

Nothing more. They should self-isolate at home with spot checks by police or military.

Please be helpful, not xenophobic and obstructionist.

Re: "Urgent testing out after scare", (BP, Oct 11).

Authorities have incessantly insisted on tedious and rigorous Covid-19 safeguards for foreigners who might fly into Thailand to conduct business, restart international tourism or simply reunite with their Thailand-based families.

I was therefore shocked to read that truck drivers hauling goods from Myanmar to the market in Mae Sot are only "randomly tested" for the Covid-19 virus. This is especially perplexing given the current known explosion of Covid-19 cases in Myanmar. Such a cavalier approach by border authorities seriously risks inflicting another serious wave of coronavirus infections on the Thai population.

Why on earth does Ajingpom in his Oct 10 letter "No-win situation" assume a death rate from Covid-19 of 1.4%? Even the WHO have recently indicated that a more accurate fatality rate might be in the region of 0.14%, roughly on a par with seasonal influenza. That is over 24 times lower than their provisional figure back in March. The projection of 450,000 to 670,000 deaths also assumes an equal risk among all age groups, which we now know to be not the case. It is precisely this sort of alarmist scaremongering that is fuelling the panic measures and draconian lockdowns threatening the livelihoods of millions right now.

There are news reports circulating around that the Yoovidhya brat has been seen in Dubai. If this guy walked around Bangkok holding up a sign saying "I'm Yoovidhya", the police would not see him, or arrest him. It's costing Yoovidhya's papa a lot but then, he doesn't care. The public is paying for it all through the purchase of that unhealthy Red Bull caffeine drink. Ha ha ha!!!