Pick-up trucks, tractors and motorcycles zoom sporadically down the bumpy road. The sun bakes on the newly harvested fields, raising the temperature to almost 40 degrees celsius.
This is rural Thailand, only a few kilometers from the Cambodian border, and this is where Søren lives. In a small house on a hilltop, Søren spends his days leaned back on his porch with a beer.
Søren is an alias. The man’s real name is known to ScandAsia, but he wishes to remain anonymous, because by all means, he is in hiding.
The move to Thailand
Søren is 70 and comes from Copenhagen. He spent his working life in high positions in the media industry and as an account manager for the Nordic division of a large international company. Since the age of 22, Søren has paid top tax.
After finalizing a divorce in the mid-2010s, Søren visited a friend and his wife in Thailand. The friend’s wife introduced Søren to one of her friends, and she and Søren soon hit it off. Before long, the two were married.
Danish retirees living outside of the EU are not eligible to receive pension supplements. So in order to receive pension supplements, Danish retirees cannot leave Denmark or the EU for more than 6 months out of the year, which to many retirees with families outside of the EU creates a challenge.
In the beginning, Søren was committed to following the rules of the Danish officials, spending no more than 6 months abroad a year. But then Covid hit, and the Danish government sent out a call for all Danes abroad to return home.
“We considered it,” Søren explains, “but it didn’t make sense. I didn’t want to be away from my wife indefinitely. I had not much left for me in Denmark. So I decided to stay and ride out the lockdown in Thailand, and not long after, I had overstayed the 6 months limit.”
Life in the shadows
As far as the Danish government is concerned, Søren lives in Denmark. In official documents, Søren has listed his address with some friends in Copenhagen. By listing his address in Denmark Søren receives a part of the pension supplements enjoyed by retirees living in the EU, despite living fulltime in Thailand.
Without the pension supplements, Søren would rely entirely on base-level pension, and that is not enough to live off.
“I would have to give up my car. I couldn’t go to the beach once a month anymore. I would probably be more worried about going to the doctor. There is a lot of stuff I wouldn’t be able to afford,” Søren explains.
It is unknown just how many Danish retirees outside of the EU, but like Søren, retain an address in Denmark to keep the pension supplements coming. But it is risky.
Should government officials discover a retiree breaking the rules, the person would immediately be re-registered in the government system and lose access to pension supplements. They would also be asked to repay the supplements to the government, sometimes amounting to almost over a million Danish crowns.
You cannot trust anybody
Søren has seen it happen. Friends of his have been caught and asked to repay astronomical sums they can’t afford. After three years, it is possible to have the debt cancelled, but regardless, the retiree has lost the pension supplements and must live only on the base amount.
“It is a snitching system. You cannot trust anybody. You never know if you accidentally offend somebody at a bar, he or she can then go to the officials and claim that you are breaking the rules, and then you are screwed,” Søren explains.
Søren is careful and takes a lot of precautions. When he is out at bars and meets new people, he introduces himself under a fake name.
“I can never be too careful. Especially with new people. I have so much to lose,” Søren says.
Søren and his wife are also not married on paper. They have had the religious ceremony at a temple, as is custom in Thai culture. But when it came to signing a marriage license, Søren was worried it would create a paper trail leading the government to him.
“If we were to sign all the official documents, suddenly, there would exist a bunch of papers that would indicate to Danish officials that I do in fact not live in Denmark. It’s not worth the risk to me,” Søren explains.
Another fear is Søren’s passport. While he has an agent who takes care of all visa-related matters with the Thai government, Søren has his Danish passport – and it is running out.
“I have about 3 years left on it. After that, I have to get a new one at the embassy. I’m worried. That is how a friend of mine got caught. I warned him to be careful, but they got him,” Søren says.
Feeling like a criminal
Living under the radar is stressful.
“I don’t like always having to look over my shoulder. At one point, I was scared my ex-wife would grow bitter about my life down here and turn me in. I have awoken many nights with that fear,” Søren tells.
“I feel like a criminal, and it doesn’t feel nice. But at the same time, I don’t feel guilty. In some ways, I think I paid for this,” Søren explains. “It also hurts in my stomach when I think about my friends who let me have an address with them. I don’t like involving them in this.”
Søren explains how he has paid top tax since he was 22. He has never had kids to put through publicly funded schools, and has never burdened the Danish healthcare system.
As he has gotten older, his health has also deteriorated. Multiple times, he has been admitted to Thai hospitals, which he has paid for himself.
“Those have been times where I could have returned home and been a burden on the Danish hospitals, but I chose to remain here. I love my life in Thailand. I don’t want to give it up.”
The end station
A red tractor drives by the little house on the hill, and Søren laughs on his porch. He likes to count tractors and divide them by color – red, yellow, green – while his wife works in her vegetable garden.
“This is my life now, this is my end station,” he laughs and takes a sip of his beer.
“When it’s my time, my body will be burned over at the temple. This is where I will live till I die, even if I have to hide to be here.”
