Koh Samui Foreigner have a second attempt at handing out food donations

Yesterday, German nationals, Sam Gruber and Florenz Kittel were giving food donations again in Koh Samui – but this time with the support of the local authorities.

The group got into trouble earlier this week when they were summoned by local police and rebuked for failing to organise their contributions to migrant workers in a safe manner.

The summons came after they posted videos of themselves donating food to migrant workers on the island.

The police said the staff did not wear masks, they did not keep to social distancing standards and the organisers did not warn the authorities in advance, as required.

The expats were also told to remove photos of the donations.

“We were made to realize who’s big and who’s small in this country,” the men say in a video they posted about the police encounter.

Suppakiat Petchaset, chief of security affairs on Koh Samui, said on Tuesday that the videos could “cause other countries to misunderstand that Thailand has no preventative measures, affecting the country’s image.”

“They were not detained, we just summoned them for a discussion. They willingly deleted it,” Suppakiat said

“They just wanted to donate items but didn’t know about social distancing.”

Despite this, the expats were back again yesterday with their charity initiatives. Gruber confirmed that the security officers were now helping the group hand out the food.

“It wasn’t that easy to sort out the crowd of hungry people, but it succeeded thanks to the authority of the Thais involved! We’ve learned our lesson and we don’t do anything without their help,” he wrote.

SOURCE:Khaosoenglish

Stay updated with Samui Times by following us on Facebook.