r/nottheonion • u/novagridd • 6h ago

Thailand's Prostitution Patrol on High Alert as 5,000 US Sailors Drop Ship After 200 Days at Sea

https://www.fashiontimes.co.uk/pattaya-police-intensify-prostitution-patrols-us-navy-visit-1763395
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u/MsCorningstone 6h ago

Thailand has really strict visa policies for US military. Even if they do go awol, they are not getting out of the country and will have a tough time since many sailors do not even have passports. I was there in '09 and we had to jump through hoops to get sailors in and out of the country. Some were denied entry and had to be sent to the next port.

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u/VirtualLife76 5h ago

Never thought about it, how does that work? Do they have a local checking everyone as the get off the boat or is it more of an honor system?

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u/MsCorningstone 4h ago

There is an agreement between the two countries. Sailors do not go through immigration when they go into a foreign port. Essentially they send a list to the country and everyone that comes in with the boat needs to leave with the boat.

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u/front_yard_duck_dad 5h ago

I never served but have been around enough Old timers to know that they will have flown military police from the mainland and be patrolling because the second those dudes don't check into their boat. They will get snatched up by military police

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u/MsCorningstone 4h ago

The ship has its own police force, and shore patrol will consist of MA's and people on assigned duty. They do not fly in military police... they're already on the boat.

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u/front_yard_duck_dad 4h ago

You're totally right under normal circumstances but I firmly believe with how aggressive this administration is to look good at all times they will take extra precaution and up the numbers.

They absolutely would not take the chance of even a single news story getting out about AWOL's

Edit. Especially with the low morale. The pictures that are getting leaked of how bad the food is for them. Not to mention, I can't imagine they are gung-ho about what their mission is and how shitty it looks to the world.

This is the administration that murders its own citizens with an extra judicial masked police force after all

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u/RentIsThePoint 3h ago

I firmly believe with how aggressive this administration is to look good at all times

lol what? If that's what they are trying they are doing the worst job of it.

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u/tractiontiresadvised 3h ago

In addition to what the other person said about sailors not going through immigration, civilian contractors also go to other countries with the military without passports. (A guy I know went to the Middle East as a civilian contractor, and while he had a passport he ended up never having to show it to anybody because he flew there on a military cargo transport.)

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u/harambe_did911 4h ago

The way immigration typically works in every country is you have to prove you're legal to be there for anything important like employment or housing. It's common to have a list of people overdue that they are hunting down

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u/nerdmor 2h ago

Thank you very much for the perspective