khunjeff

How exactly do you define "substandard goods"? And the shops are filled with them, so why is it a surprise that they're also sold online?

Amazing police work! Those vape vendors are almost impossible to find...other than on every street corner and in every market. And of course all the police officers publicly vaping all over the country are actually conducting secret research into the supply networks 😅

8 hours ago, webfact said:

However, Akkhrawut maintains that the Thai nation is bearing the brunt of an influx of undocumented workers and associated issues like rising crime.

I'm pretty sure that the workers in question are fully documented, and are under the sponsorship of companies that need their labor. And I'm not aware of any evidence that Burmese laborers are committing any more crimes than Thais...

On 2/2/2025 at 3:30 AM, Georgealbert said:

As part of the initiative, the Royal Thai Police have introduced seven new measures to strengthen border security, including tighter airport screening and stricter immigration checks at land crossings. One key measure requires officials at border checkpoints, such as Mae Sot, to alert embassies if foreign nationals attempt to enter high-risk areas without a clear travel itinerary.

Since some victims of these gangs have reported being escorted through immigration, I'm not sure how effective this will really be. And what exactly will alerting embassies accomplish, especially since the victim is normally accompanied by gang members when crossing the border? Will immigration also deny entry or exit to these travelers with "unclear" plans?

1 hour ago, wensiensheng said:

Thai airline is mentioned several times, as in Thai airways.

"Thai airline" could describe any of the several Thailand-registered carriers, hence the confusion. "Thai Airways" is never mentioned in the article.

6 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

Pol. Maj. Gen. Prasat Khemaprasit, Chief of Immigration Division 1, along with senior immigration and local police officers, conducted a raid

As usual, this seems like overkill to arrest one hapless low-wage illegal worker (while his Thai bosses apparently weren't touched).

And though the authorities are acting as though busting a cannabis farm is a big deal, it appears that only license and permit regulations were violated - and even the officials acknowledge that getting the right permits is easy and cheap.

The page you cited messed up the terminology - it should be "non-quota immigrant visa", not "non-immigrant quota".

"6. NON-QUOTA IMMIGRANT VISA

         - This type of visa is granted only by the Office of Immigration Bureau in Bangkok to aliens who are domiciled in Thailand having as evidence valid permits to re-enter the Kingdom. Applicants shall submit their applications together with the Certificate of Residence directly to the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok."

https://athens.thaiembassy.org/th/publicservice/17617-types-of-visa?page=5d74fae415e39c30ec0013f2&menu=5d74fae415e39c30ec0013f3

So yes, this does refer to permanent residence (whenever immigration says "residence", they're talking about PR).

11 hours ago, MangoKorat said:

Reading that again, it can't mean PR as it says 'The letter from the Immigration Department certifying that the non-residents shall be granted an annual temporary stay in Thailand'.  That is not PR.

That is from the second of two paragraphs separated by the word "or". The OP was asking about the first paragraph, which did indeed mean PR.

4 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Most of the threads regarding bringing (importing) furniture, personal goods etc to Thailand have a negative spin.

Many folk suggesting ..."don't do it" 

I imported all of my household effects when I came here on an OA - basically a container-load. The shipment was subject to duty, but that only came to about 20k baht, which was less than it would have cost just to replace my espresso machine. My employer paid for packing, shipping, and delivery as part of my retirement, so for me it made sense - for those who need to pay all the costs themselves, though, the math could be very different.

4 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

How will this be any different to Singapore, Ireland, Greece, Australia or any one of dozens of countries that require an online declaration before travel

It's different because Thailand actually stopped using entry forms over two years ago, and over 50 million foreigners have entered without one - and without the kingdom collapsing. It's obvious that the system worked just fine without the forms, so why re-introduce them? Why not just emulate Vietnam or the US, and get rid of entry forms completely?

A lot of "mandating", "ordering", "directing", and "instructing", but nothing in the way of actual policies to stop the smoke.

Even though Thipsamai is famous, I've never met anyone - Thai or foreign - who is particularly impressed by their pad Thai. At this point, they seem to be coasting along on a reputation from long ago.

Although I've heard Trump can be fairly pleasant in one-on-one encounters, the words "graceful", "generous", and "warm" are not normally associated with him...

Are any members here familiar with that area? I'm confused by the statement that he "crashed into an overpass". Did he run into one of the pillars holding it up, or is part of it low enough that he could literally knock his head against the span?

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The Royal Thai Police (RTP) has been commended by Chinese and Japanese authorities

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The RTP is now preparing legal action against those spreading misinformation that damages the country’s reputation and image.

I guess it's easier to get praise if you punish anyone who gives you criticism.

3 hours ago, Dante99 said:

So they can get some income information.

 

So this can tell about some wealth but a lot of wealth does not produce income so it would not be flagged.

 

The terminology is getting the dialog confusing and misleading.

Agree - the story starts out talking about getting data on "income" and "earnings", and then says that will lead to a tax on "wealth". I don't know whether the speaker wasn't clear in his presentation, or the reporter didn't explain it clearly, but I'm not following this at all.

Problem: Chinese entertainers are answering fake job ads and then being forcibly abducted to scam centers in Burma with assistance from corrupt Thai officials 

Solution: cut the period of stay for Chinese tourists from 30 days to 15 days

Wait, what? 🤔

3 hours ago, webfact said:

enforce local and national crime prevention strategies. This includes the deployment of checkpoints

For the love of god, their answer to every problem is...checkpoints.

Not only are checkpoints a very poor and inefficient strategy for crime prevention in general, but foreigners who were victimized by these scams have reported that they were stopped at checkpoints while being transported to the border, and were waved through when the officers recognized the faces of the traffickers.

So yeah, it still all comes down to "Directive 1" on his list, as usual - and we know how successful that's likely to be.

This case has been going on for decades now. The sale of the land was long ago determined to have been illegal, and at least one person went to prison years ago for the corruption involved in the project - and only now the titles are being revoked?

"With effective from April 1, 2019, New York branch only process ACH with appropriate IAT format and all non-IAT transactions will be returned."

https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Personal/Other-Services/Transfers/Transferring-Into-Thailand/Transfer-money-from-US-to-Thailand-via-Bangkok-Bank-NewYork-branch

5 hours ago, webfact said:

an African man had approached the company for assistance in importing 50 rabbits, reported Bangkok Post.

 

The company agreed to manage the import procedures for 150,000 baht (US$4,346) but denied any knowledge of the gorilla.

Yeah, because charging 150k baht obviously sounds like a normal price for importing rabbits. Sure... 🙄

Treating people like these as criminals - rather than victims, which is clearly what they are - is one of the reasons why Thailand keeps ending up on Trafficking in Persons watchlists. They fled from captors who had confiscated their passports, and have no desire to stay in Thailand, so just turn them over to their embassy and call it a day, instead of engaging in this jingoistic nonsense.

I thought the GOP wanted all decisions related to education to be made at the local level, with no "interference" from Washington? 🤔