Thailand's Interior Ministry has ordered a nationwide count and licence inspection of cemeteries and cremation facilities after the revocation of a Jewish cemetery licence in Chachoengsao.
The Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA) has been given three days to compile a complete list of facilities. Officials will then check every listed site for a valid operating licence, with revocation and legal proceedings possible where licences are invalid.
Bodies transferred to Chonburi
Deputy Interior Minister Polpee Suwannachavee said at Government House on 15 September 2026, that a team from Gan Chabad Co Ltd had moved four bodies from the Chachoengsao cemetery to the Bang Kla Jewish cemetery in Chonburi.
Chachoengsao authorities had been notified, and Chonburi province was also due to be informed. Polpee said he had instructed local DOPA officers to observe the transfer to confirm that the bodies were being relocated.
The wife of one of the deceased had earlier wanted to remove the body for a ceremony and cremation. Polpee said he did not understand what ceremony was intended because the body had already been buried, and assigned local officials in both provinces to oversee the matter.
Chachoengsao case becomes national model
The Interior Ministry's ad hoc committee on social order discussed cemetery operations nationwide on Monday, September 14. Once DOPA's list is complete, any site found without a valid licence will face what Polpee called the "Chachoengsao model" of licence revocation and related legal action.
Polpee said his retrospective examination of the Gan Chabad cemetery's approval process, dating from 2021, raised questions over whether its original application was supported by sufficient evidence. He said Google Earth images showed that a road and water source already existed at the location.
The Chachoengsao governor has appointed a committee to investigate approval documents signed by the president of the subdistrict administrative organisation and certain officials. Its findings are due within 15 days, although an extension could be considered later.
Polpee said he believed the approval had been improper and that action would be taken against any civil servants or local administrators found to have been involved.
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16 September 2026
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