NanaSomchai

2 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Thailand hasn't got a hope in hell.

Not with the current xenophobic junta government asleep at the wheel, that's for sure.

3 minutes ago, tonray said:

Coming soon" OA Visa holders/extenders must purchase ankle bracelet along with 400/40 insurance and 100K $ Covid plan 

It is already the case, the ankle bracelet is digitally embedded in your smartphone (GPS) and the 100K$ COVID-19 plan is called the COE (as the insurance is part of it's requirements).

13 minutes ago, vandeventer said:

Heck, just come on in we won't even check your bags as we know they are full of money!

The thing is, even purely from a money approach, Thailand has lost it's appeal:

- The sharp continous rise of the THB currency against GBP/EUR/USD makes it trivial to want to invest in the Kingdom.

- The always increasing cost of living in Thailand has squashed the retirement dreams for most of us, Thailand no longer classifies as a "cheap" retirement/traveling/leisure destination.

And that's just the money aspect of things with all the rest being put aside.

The Thailand of post 2015 is no longer a bang for your buck. Period.

12 minutes ago, Kelsall said:

So Thai Immigration Police are now stationed at every country that has a direct flight into Thailand?  ????

No, not really. They use a system called APIS. Advanced Passenger Information System.

How it does work is pretty simple; Upon booking a flight reservation or at the check-in counter, the airline is asked to forward onto the destination's country the full list of passengers INCLUDING the airline staff, then the full passengers list is checked upon an immigration blacklist.

The destination country then issues a DNB NOTICE back to the airline company which then bars you from embarking onto it's plane. It's simple as that.

The DNB NOTICE stands for Do Not Board. It is really THAT simple, and as the name implies even if you could get a visa in your passport from one the destination country's local Embassies the airline is supposed to follow that DNB NOTICE regardless and is explicitely told NOT let you board, as the name suggests.

In case of an airline company not following the DNB NOTICE and letting an unwanted passenger embark, I believe fines are then issued against the airline, which is why the airlines companies are strictly following them from a business standpoint, they know they not only are losing money but also will have to fly you back to the point of origin from their own pockets.

25 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

And is it all still working and being used? 

Yes it is. Why wouldn't it be used? Not only it has cost the Thai taxpayer a whopping 3 billion baht but also was hailed as a success from the current administration.

I also vaguely remember that some unwanted previously blacklisted Russian guy had changed his name to a different one and showed up in Thailand with a Kazakstan passport, while he managed to sneak into the country under both a different name AND a different country of origin, the biometric system caught up eventually then a few weeks/months later down the road he was arrested while either trying to leave the Kingdom or while visiting a local immigration from within to renew/extend his visa.

From a purely technical standpoint; with 40 million visitor entries being scanned and subsequently added to the database per year, every year, I don't think the biometric system has the technical capabilities to compare a matching set of fingerprints against another set of fingerprints stored in a remote database in real time, however as the laid out exemple above shows with proper computing power, time and training the algorithm will eventually catch up and find matching prints/biometric profiles over time.

Thus one could potentially deceive the biometric system temporarily *once* with a different Firstname/Surname/Country of Origin (also many passports do not mention Place of Birth or Current registered address), long enough to pass the basic immigration database checks at any of the Kingdom's entry points (airport queue, queue at a land border, etc), fool a non suspecting immigration officer and be released in the wild in the Kingdom but rest assured the system WILL eventually over night, over the lapse of a few days, weeks or months (no one has access to that kind of information) catch up and match up both profiles.

I recall clearly the article's conclusion mentioning that once arrested again, the previously blacklisted Russian was blacklisted under his new name/Kazhakstan identity as well and was thrown out of the Kingdom yet again.

Biometrics systems exist for a reason, Thailand has spent several billions buying/invested into a German system, I wouldn't say it is flawless (no such system exists, there's always a flaw) but it appears to do the job, the only way to fool it/circumvent lies within you; your face and your fingerprints. Even though if you *potentially* could fool the facial recognition part by dyeing your hair, growing a beard, returning 20 years later, wearing glasses, having facial surgery corrections here and there, you'd still be caught out by the tip of your fingers.

TL;DR: Yes the Thai biometrics system is working just fine and this whole foreigner tracking mantra is only going to get worse with time as technology improves and the Kingdom has access to it, even if tomorrow the current junta was thrown out and replaced by another foreigner-Friendlier government, the biometrics system would still be in place.

To those who are saying that Thailand had been used as a regional hub for all criminals around the World for decades, rest assured that time is over.

2 minutes ago, Boomer6969 said:

Thai thinking: without the poison from abroad Thailand would be free of crime.

 

 

Precisely.

1 hour ago, lkn said:

It’s disappointing to hear someone say “we want a million wealthy people to come, so we get a cash flow” rather than “we want to make our cities so appealing that even wealthy people want to live here”.

With proper management and a safer throughful laid out plan they could have become the new Riviera of the South East Asia region, instead they are still up to their old antics, scamming, gouging and fleecing tourists for a quick buck.

Take an example of what Portugal has done in the past 10 years, no taxes for whichever foreigner wishing to inject cash in Portugal's economy, it saved the country and helped it get through a major financial crisis including the COVID-19 crisis.

What Thailand really needs is a far less xenophobic properly democratically elected government, that would be the very first stepping stone.

Thailand has so much to do, fix, arrange and amend just in order to get back to it's 2000~2010 former glory that I truly doubt it can even be achieved at this point.

And yes I know some will disagree with me here but I am strongly convinced the average Thai citizen was much happier and thriving under Thaksin's rules/regime. 

Until then nothing will ever change until the Thais take matter in their own hands and succesfully overthrow the current non democratically self-elected junta failure that has been asleep at the wheel for the past 7 years or so.

At the end of the day, it is the 99% of the average non-connected Thais that are losing out on this one, they have been robbed blind of 7 years of their lives with no compensation in sight and it's nowhere near ending.

Again the Thais have to take matters in their own hands because at the end of the day; YOU need to be the change YOU want to see in the World.

1 hour ago, lkn said:

But attracting one million wealthy people within five year is just wishful thinking.

It's not just wishful thinking anymore, they are day dreaming all awake at this point.

As it was stated earlier in this very thread, it's all about stimulating the economy with a quick instant money jab then get rid of us pesky foreigners once the economy has recovered and is somewhat stable again at the first chance they got.

Ideally if they could find a way to fleece us as soon as we land in Suvarnabhumi then fly us back immediately to our origin point of departure, rest assured they would.

This is Thailand.

1 hour ago, mokwit said:

Visa is for five years because they just want their money to help Thailand recover from the pandemic and then they would like them to leave.

 

 

Always remember what they have done with the very first iteration of the Elite visa program then "retired" it for a far lesser attractive one once they had the money boost they needed/sought.

This will be the same $hit all over again, make things very attractive at first, lure in the first thousands of suckers in, quick ca$h grab then retire it/put an end to it.

Thai style.

34 minutes ago, Crossy said:

It's far easier to assume we are all criminals on the run than it is to actually filter out the bad guys.

Thai thinking 101.

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

Considering the amount of people getting back into the country by changing or adjusting their name, they will only be denying idiot criminals entry

Not quite, they now have biometric scanning technology at their disposal at every entry/exit point of the Kingdom, be it by land, air or sea since mid 2019.

Once your biometrics details have been entered into that database, you're stored there for virtually... forever.

4 hours ago, VBF said:

we Brits

There. Your problem lies right there.

Say Hi to Bojo "the nutcase" and Priti "the witch" for me next time you see them!