Brit "stuck" In Naia Terminal 1 For 3 Weeks!

[Markham]

There are some people who should never ever be issued with a Passport. One such is former British jockey Gary Austin who, according to this report, arrived in Manila from the UK on November 29 and proceeded to Cebu to meet his online "friends".

He returned to Manila on December 17 - three days before his visa waiver expired - and tried to check-in for his return flight with Gulf Air. The airline refused to carry him claiming that his travel agent had cancelled his ticket. But his woes didn't end there: he'd also run out of money and spent the next three weeks "living" in the pre-departure area (ie "check-in") whilst trying to figure out how he was going to raise the money to buy a new ticket.

Two days ago he had a brain-wave and went to the British Embassy to seek assistance and he was given access to a phone line and an internet connection. It's not known whether he made good use of either but he was interviewed by "The Rappler" - whose story I've linked - and he bleats about how the Embassy should do more to help him. What - like give you a free ticket home and pay your fines at the tax payer's expense?!

So he's an overstayer and with no place to stay and no means to pay, he's also guilty of vagrancy (which is an offence where foreigners are concerned). I'd not be surprised if the next we hear of him is that he has been arrested and sent to the BI detention centre at Bicutan where he'll while-away many a month whilst BI decides his future.

That his travel agent cancelled his ticket is a bit baffling. The only sensible reason I could come up with is that he paid by credit card and subsequently did a "charge-back". Or maybe he has a wife back in the UK who found out that her philandering husband had come to the Philippines and decided to teach him a lesson.

[Jollygoodfellow]

Maybe he should have phoned his online friends for help :) I'm sure they had a good time while he visited. Anyway I thought in cases like this the embassy make some sort of debt arrangement and send him home?

[Dave Hounddriver]

The story has been picked up by the Philstar and its got some really funny parts which I have highlited:

Stranded in Terminal 1, Brit finds friends

MANILA, Philippines - A British racehorse jockey has been staying at the departure area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 in Pasay City since Dec. 19 after his plane ticket was allegedly cancelled.

Gary Peter Austin, 52, a resident of England and an international jockey hired by racehorse owners from Kuwait and Oman, apparently has no more money to buy a ticket to fly out.

He has no idea why his Gulf Air ticket to Kuwait was cancelled by his travel agency.

Austin arrived in the country last Nov. 29 from Kuwait on board Gulf Air and visited a Filipino friend in Cebu who was not immediately identified.

The British jockey met his friend from Cebu at the Sta. Ana Park hippodrome in Makati in 2005. After his trip to Cebu, Austin arrived at NAIA 1 to catch his flight to Kuwait last Dec. 19, but he was shocked when Gulf Air personnel told him that his plane ticket was “void.”

Austin has since been stranded at the airport departure area, sleeping in the terminal chairs and with Gulf Air employees supplying him with airline food. Airport employees told The STAR that Austin had even befriended departing passengers, most of them overseas Filipino workers, who gave him some money to buy food.

Austin also met Mahannah Bulabon, 32, a single mother and a janitress at the airport. Bulabon said she met Austin in one of the comfort rooms that she was cleaning and they have become friends.

She said that Austin now only has P80 left.

“We pity him so sometimes we buy water for him,” she added.

Maritess Inocencio, another janitress and a friend of Bulabon, said that Austin told her that Bulabon could be a “perfect wife.”

Austin went to the British embassy in Makati yesterday to ask for assistance for his return flight to the United Kingdom.

[StayAtHomeDad]

i do feel for the guy, though. I hope he makes it back home before too long.

[Markham]

I thought in cases like this the embassy make some sort of debt arrangement and send him home?

Those days are long gone, partly due to abuses of the system. The Embassy has done all it is permitted to do - which is provide him with a phone line and internet access. It will, for a fee, give him money but only if matching funds have been deposited with the Foreign Office in London first.

[Markham]

He should, by now, be seated comfortably on this afternoon's Emirates flight to Dubai and then on to London thanks to the incredible generosity of a Filipino couple. Let's hope he repays them upon his return.

[Jollygoodfellow]

Austin also met Mahannah Bulabon, 32, a single mother and a janitress at the airport. Bulabon said she met Austin in one of the comfort rooms that she was cleaning and they have become friends. She said that Austin now only has P80 left. “We pity him so sometimes we buy water for him,” she added. Maritess Inocencio, another janitress and a friend of Bulabon, said that Austin told her that Bulabon could be a “perfect wife.”

Maybe the perfect wife but do they bother to think he wont make the perfect husband? Even if broke and stranded at an airport I guess he is still a rich foreigner.

[brock]

Dutch national Jeroen Van Straten, chief operating officer of Air & Odor Management, who purchased an Emirates Airline flight via Dubai with connecting flight to Heathrow Airport in London.

Wonder if he would buy me a ticket