A lawsuit for 2.2 million rubles was filed by Krasnoyarsk residents Marina and Evgeny Burak, who miraculously escaped Thai prison due to an error in the child’s passport. The defendants in the case are the local department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is engaged in the registration and issuance of exit documents, as well as the border guard service of Krasnoyarsk International Airport.
Siberians decided to go to Thailand in June last year, when their 2-year-old son Sasha had lung complications after severe bronchitis, and doctors recommended taking the child to the sea. The family sold the only car and bought it for 200 thousand rubles. a tour to a hotel in Phuket. Before the trip, the Krasnoyarsk residents gave Sasha a passport, not imagining what awaits them next.
“There was some kind of technical glitch during the preparation of the document, and the lines with biometrics data were not completely printed,” she told the journalist TourDom.ru lawyer Anna Belle, who deals with the family’s case from Krasnoyarsk. It is clear that it is problematic for a non-specialist to notice this, so at the appointed time the family arrived at the airport to go to Thailand.
“When passing through the control, the border guards immediately discovered a technical error and pointed it out to the head of the family. But instead of being denied boarding, the tourists were allowed to board the flight. At the same time, they were not given the accompanying document necessary in such cases, that the passport is valid, but there is a technical typo there,” the lawyer said.
At Phuket airport, vigilant guards of the Thai border also found a mistake and believed that the Siberians had decided to kidnap someone else’s child. Their colleagues in Krasnoyarsk did not respond to requests from Thai border guards. According to the lawyer, the Russian consul on duty in Thailand did not respond to the messages of the terrified tourists either.
“The parents were saved only by the fact that the boy looked like them like two drops of water. Otherwise, according to the strict laws of the kingdom, the child should have been taken away before the circumstances were clarified, and the parents should have been imprisoned. The fact that they were simply deported can be called luck, if that word is acceptable in this situation,” says Anna Belle.
The tourists were put on a plane, while the family was not allowed to buy any food and water at the airport. “And when he started asking to eat, and the boy told us (the flight attendant. – Editor’s note) that you are sorry, there is no food on you, and at that moment tears began to flow, Sasha was crying, me, my husband too,” Maria Burak shares her experience. The crew took pity on the child and shared their dinner. The airliner landed not in Krasnoyarsk, but in Novosibirsk, so the family had to look for a place to spend the night in order to hit the road home in the morning. And having already crossed the threshold of the apartment, Marina and Eugene fully realized that they were one step away from the fact that the Thais would take their boy.
“The case is in the Central District Court of Krasnoyarsk, and the next hearing is scheduled for June. Two are already over, the first is an introductory one, the second is for collecting evidence – it took place on April 9. Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the border service completely deny their guilt, so the hearings will not be easy,” the lawyer of the injured tourists summed up. The claim against the law enforcement agencies amounts to 2.2 million rubles, which includes the amount for the unused travel package, compensation for related expenses and moral damage.
English 
Russian 
German 
Polish