Two women from Udon Thani, who entered South Korea on tourist visas and escaped from their tour group with a plan to find work, have agreed to come back to Thailand after their story was featured on national TV and widely shared online.
As more and more innocent people are detained and deported by South Korean immigration because of the rising number of Thais overstaying their visas, the two women identified as Yupin Jantasan, 34, and Chutima Ruengpattaravej, 32, became social pariahs when they vanished from their hotel in Seoul, leaving their Thai guide at risk of becoming blacklisted, Morning News reported.
It was reported that Yupin and Chutima, who are a couple, were both detained upon arrival at the airport on June 9, and their Thai guide, Puriwat Thitijaruwarawat, signed a guarantee that they would return to Thailand after their trip.
A desperate Puriwat went on social media, begging the two to rejoin the group and save his career as a tour guide.
As their story went viral, the couple’s leaked Facebook chat with a friend revealed that they had planned to stay in South Korea for three months to work. They were hoping to bring home more than THB100,000.
The two women reportedly flew back to Thailand yesterday at the expense of their guide, who bought their tickets home.
Meanwhile, reporters went to Yupin’s parent’s house in Udon Thani to get to the bottom of the story.
Her parents, Thong and Boonnom Jantasan, said Yupin and her girlfriend were only trying to get out of debt after they bought a house and car.
The family also sold two cows for THB55,000 and got a THB10,000 loan to pay for their daughter’s trip, Workpoint reported.
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