The lawyers and international case managers at Thailand Bail have helped many people successfully fight their criminal cases in Thailand and avoid prison. But there are thousands of people each year who we do not have the opportunity to work for, and many of these people end up in Thai prison. We receive emails and phone calls each week from friends and family members of foreign inmates who are in one of the many prisons in Thailand. Thailand Bail does offer post-case legal services, and one of the most-requested services is to help foreign prisoners in Thai prisons get repatriated to their home countries. Therefore, today’s post is about prisoner transfer agreements in Thailand and the recent news that Thailand will sign two new prisoner transfer agreements with Malaysia and Ukraine. Please read below for more details about prisoner transfer agreements between Thailand and other countries. 

Since Thailand currently has 38 prisoner transfer agreements signed, we will not go into detail about each one in this post. However, it is important to research if your country has a transfer agreement with Thailand or not. Many countries have transfer agreements with Thailand, and it is common to see a basic numeric calculation for eligibility for foreign inmates in Thai prisons. Many countries’ inmates are eligible to transfer back home after four (4) years if they received a numeric sentence as part of their judgment, and eight (8) years if they received life in prison or the death sentence as their judgment in the Thai court. However, not every prisoner transfer agreement is the same, and we encourage you to contact your embassy for more information on the details of your country’s prisoner transfer agreement. 

In recent news, it was announced that Thailand would sign new PTA’s with Malaysia and Ukraine in 2020. This will be especially helpful for the families of inmates from Malaysia and Ukraine, since they will no longer have to travel long distances to visit their loved ones. Thailand Bail also knows that there are other countries without prisoner transfer agreements with Thailand who are in talks to sign, including Russia. Despite the large number of Russians who visit Thailand, there is currently no prisoner transfer agreement with Thailand, and there is no extradition treaty. However, in our meetings with Russian consular officials, we understand that this is being worked on diligently from both sides, and should become a reality within the next 1-2 years. 

If you have a friend or family who is a foreign inmate in a Thai prison, contact Thailand Bail for more information on prisoner transfer agreements or other post-judgment legal services.