A Ukrainian National "Anatoliy Vdovychenko" age 57 claims to have been held captive in a Factory at Rangsit in Bangkok for the last 14 years!
He claims to have come over in the mid 90's to work as a specialist for an oxygen company "Combitex Corporation Ltd". Whilst he was working there he suffered an accident and this is were the story becomes a little jaded, he couldn't return home. The company offered him a position with them with a very nice package. After a few months everything went pear shaped and Mr. V was confined to the factory and received no wages. From then on he was guarded and spyed on by other employees. He was only allowed to leave the Factory to buy food from a food vendor across from the site.
His family struggled to find him because at the time Ukraine did not have an embassy in Thailand. However, a recent letter was received a letter from a Burmese worker arrived at the new Embassy and an investigation was launched and the Embassy went directly to the Factory and confronted the owners. After a confrontation, Mr. V was released in to the custody of Embassy officials. Mr. V is in a poor state of health and can hardly speak his native tongue.
All this is being investigated by the DSI, which is the Thai version of Special Branch. This begs another question, why aren't the Police involved? In short, the local Police were probably aware of the situation and were receiving a cut back to turn a blind eye.
Thailand Immigration has granted Mr. V leave to stay in the country till the end of next month. (That's kind of them). Others are telling him to pursue the company for the very least payment of un paid salary. There is something underlyingly strange about this story, it will be interesting to see if any international news groups pick up the story, and if that will have an affect on the out come.
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