fi
death sentence, contrary to the decline in the
overall prison population observed since
2021.
Foreign Nationals
Daniel Pascoe (2019) notes that, unlike in
other Southeastern states that retain the
death penalty - such as Singapore, Malaysia
and Indonesia - the execution of foreign
nationals in Thailand is relatively rare. Indeed,
during King Bhumibol’s entire seventy-year
reign (from 1946 - 2016), and until present
day, no citizen of a Western nation has been
executed in Thailand. For citizens from nonWestern states on death row in Thailand, the
gures remain low: foreign nationals make
up 5% of the 223 executions carried out
since 1960. Pascoe suggests that the reason
for this is due to the centrality of trade and
tourism to the Thai economy, and thus a
need to maintain good relations with
international neighbours.
have been executed since 1996 (including
Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Nigerian and
Myanmar nationals) hail from countries that
either do not play a major role in the Thai
economy through trade and tourism or are
retentionist states themselves.
Thailand’s thriving tourist industry means fewer more
vulnerable foreign nationals live and work in Bangkok
Whilst foreigners are rarely executed in
Thailand, they continue to be sentenced to
death. By the end of 2016, there were 24
foreigners under sentence of death in
Thailand. It is often further down the line that
these prisoners have their sentences
lessened through a Royal Pardon. Pascoe
speculates that those foreign prisoners who
Acknowledgements
With special thanks to the following organisations and individuals who lent their considerable assistance and expertise
towards this research in Thailand: Harm Reduction International, Pramod Acharya, Francesca Rigg, among others.
Death Penalty Research Unit, University of Oxford
For more research see:
foreign-nationals.uwazi.io or tinyurl.com/mappingdeathrow