Missing Dutch celebrity left Thailand late last year - police

Family offers reward for information about his whereabouts

PUBLISHED : 25 Oct 2026 at 10:36

Missing Dutch television personality and politician Emile Ratelband, whose family is seeking information as to his whereabouts, left Thailand late last year, according to immigration police.

Pol Maj Gen Choengron Rimpadee, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, said on Saturday that Mr Ratelband, 70, and his close friend Natalia da Silva had arrived in Thailand at Suvarnabhumi airport in December 2021. They applied for visas and declared their place of accommodation in a southern province.

Mr Ratelband left Thailand via a Thai-Lao friendship bridge to Laos late last year. Ms Natalia departed Thailand the same day by air from Suvarnabhumi airport to a Mideast country. There is no official immigration record of either of them returning, Pol Maj Gen Choengron said, 

Even so, immigration chief Pol Lt Gen Noppasilp Poonsawat has ordered a nationwide search for the missing Dutchman. It follows a request from Mr Ratelband’s family and relatives in Phuket, who have offered a reward of €2,500 (about 94,000 baht) for information as to his whereabouts.

He also assured the public that Immigration police were serious in screening visitors to prevent fraud and abduction.