Australian woman who overstayed Thai visa by 100 days to be sent home

Front cover of an Australian passport that is sitting on a timber table.
By Hannah Edensor


An Australian woman who had overstayed her Thai visa by more than three months will be deported by Thai authorities this week.

Claire Johnson, who had owned a plastic surgery tourism company in Thailand up until 2017, was due to arrive home last week, however, told her friend Juliet Potter on Monday she was in an immigration detention centre in Bangkok.

Johnson also asked Potter to “help” her.

Johnson’s business called Cosmetic Holidays International which voluntarily shut down in May of 2017, “a medical tourism agency that offers cosmetic packages in Phuket”.

Despite being closed for almost two years, Johnson is still advertising the business through her social media channels.

While visitors who overstay their visas in Thailand are usually only penalised with a small fine, Thailand’s immigration chief, Surachate Hakparn, said that Johnson had been both fined and arrested, and would soon be deported.

“About Claire Johnson, today, my Immigration [Department] will send her to Australia. She leaves tonight,” he said.

“She was arrested by Immigration police because she was an overstay[er] by almost 111 days.

“But now she is finished in Thailand, I will send her back to her home. She will fly by Qantas Airlines.”

Addressing the situation, The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was “providing consular assistance to an Australian woman detained in Thailand in accordance with the Consular Services Charter”.

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