The disgraced rock singer Gary Glitter could find himself locked up in a notoriously overcrowded Thai detention centre if he refuses to board a flight to Britain from Bangkok airport, Thai officials said today.

The Thai immigration service declared Glitter, 64, "persona non grata" when he arrived in Bangkok last night after his deportation from Vietnam, where he served nearly three years for sexually assaulting two young girls.

But after disembarking in Bangkok he refused to continue the journey to London. Instead, complaining of dizziness and distress, Glitter rented a transit lounge room for the night.

Lieutenant General Chatchawal Suksomjit, the Thai immigration chief, said: "We will have to repatriate him back to Vietnam, because he is on our watch list as persona non grata. Thai immigration cannot let him enter.

"Officials concerned are working through the process of putting him on the plane to take him out of the country, but if he continues to refuse to leave then he will confined in the (airport transit) area temporarily before being taken into a detention centre."

The detention centre in question, at Suan Phlu, usually houses around 1,200 illegal immigrants from other South-East Asian countries such as Burma, Cambodia and Laos and from further afield.

Most remain at the centre for only a few hours but other detainees can remain there for a year or more, with little food and in rooms with 40 other inmates. British diplomats have in the past raised concerns about the conditions they are forced to endure and Thai officials clearly doubt that Glitter would want to spend much time there.

Major General Pongdej Chaiprawaj, head of the immigration police at Bangkok airport, said Glitter had faked an ear condition that would have prevented him from flying. "He claimed to have tinnitus in his ears and declined to board the flight to London," he said, adding that Glitter was being shadowed by Thai police to prevent him from entering the country.

"He is banned from entering because he was jailed and he could pose a threat to domestic morality," he said. "He is a transit passenger and it is the responsibility of the airline to take him to his final destination."

The terms of Glitter's sentence called for his deportation on his release and if he is returned to Vietnam, it is almost certain that he will be put back on a flight to London. However Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, is determined to stay out of the UK.

"I'm not going back to London," he said when he arrived in Thailand. "You can't make me. I've done my time. I'm a free man."

After he refused to re-board the flight to London last night British Embassy officials were called in. Thai immigration officials declined to force Glitter back on the plane and the British police officer escorting him admitted that he had no jurisdiction to make him board the aircraft.

As the officials pondered the situation, flight TG901 pulled away from the gate with Glitter still at the airport.

He was travelling on a passport issued by the British consulate in Ho Chi Minh City last November. He has the same rights as any British citizen to travel to any country that does not require a visa.

However he has been denied the right to enter Singapore and Hong Kong and his future remains uncertain.

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