93 foreigners rounded up in nationwide crackdowns

[webfact]

93 foreigners rounded up in nationwide crackdowns

By The Nation

 

Pictures: Thai Tourist Police

 

Tourist police searched 118 locations around the country on Wednesday and arrested 93 foreigners for residing in Thailand illegally.

 

Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakpal, deputy commissioner of the Tourist Police Bureau, held a press conference at the Monthian Hotel in Bangkok’s Bang Rak district to announce the results of the 9th X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner Operation.

 

 

He said 62 of the suspects were arrested for having entered the Kingdom illegally and 18 for overstaying their visas. He added that 13 others suspects were arrested on other charges.

 

 

Surachet said the tourist police joined hands with other police agencies to search three international schools, nine language schools, 60 normal schools and 46 other areas.

 

 

The deputy tourist police chief said the operation was aimed at weeding out criminals who disguised themselves as tourists to carry out call-centre and romance scams, credit card and ATM identity thefts and other crimes that could affect Thailnd’s reputation.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30344004

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-04-26

 

[overherebc]

We really need a breakdown by nationality and also colour so the comments can start to flow.

[mommysboy]

I guess the schools are doing summer camps and can't find normal teachers, but I just don't find the reports credible.  Quite honestly, I can't see any normal school letting illegal, non-native speakers anywhere near the kids.  Something a bit odd here!

[clash]

19 minutes ago, overherebc said:

We really need a breakdown by nationality and also colour so the comments can start to flow.

i'd say a few nigerians were in the mix, that's a pretty safe bet

[clash]

8 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

I guess the schools are doing summer camps and can't find normal teachers, but I just don't find the reports credible.  Quite honestly, I can't see any normal school letting illegal, non-native speakers anywhere near the kids.  Something a bit odd here!

they seem too. a lot of africans working as english teachers in the sticks. really dodgy but i guess they only have to pay them 25k and that's pretty much impossible to live on so they must be up to something else

[taipan1949]

Another good news day. Go get'em boys, charge, jail and deport.

[LazySlipper]

24 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

Quite honestly, I can't see any normal school letting illegal, non-native speakers anywhere near the kids.  Something a bit odd here!

 

Nothing odd... common practice. But I would like to see the names of said international schools. Been here teaching 15 years and if they actually did a serious clean up of foreigners teaching on tourist visas it might help the legal ones attain better salaries. 

[clash]

thaiwrath, what do you find confusing about the truth?

[clash]

3 minutes ago, LazySlipper said:

 

Nothing odd... common practice. But I would like to see the names of said international schools. Been here teaching 15 years and if they actually did a serious clean up of foreigners teaching on tourist visas it might help the legal ones attain better salaries. 

then there's all the filipino teachers who work for next to nothing. to get a qualified teacher with say QTS or similar who would get a job at Rugby school or something like that, i'd imagine they are paid over 100k and have other benefits too. the local schools just don't have the budget and if they do it's usually been creamed off

[ratcatcher]

It might be that the young lady officer is the only competent English speaker among that crowd of smiling men.

Perhaps the police should get some free lessons off the guys they rounded up? 

[clash]

and theguyfromanother forum. what do you find confusing about that comment?

[clash]

i think it's true. alot of african non native speakers get jobs in local schools in the sticks and even get work permits with their nothing degrees from africa which are no better than the crap you could buy on kaosarn years ago. then they moonlight selling shit coke or doing romance scams or what ever other dodgy crap they are into. big joke knows this and is doing something about it. good for him

[darksidedog]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The deputy tourist police chief said the operation was aimed at weeding out criminals who disguised themselves as tourists to carry out call-centre and romance scams, credit card and ATM identity thefts and other crimes that could affect Thailand’s reputation.

And all of these criminals are working in the schools are they? I dare say there are some serious criminals working around the country. I would be much happier seeing the police target them, though that of course, could involve some real police work. Its a sad day when the cops round up a few teachers and think it is worthy of national news.

[clash]

3 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

And all of these criminals are working in the schools are they? I dare say there are some serious criminals working around the country. I would be much happier seeing the police target them, though that of course, could involve some real police work. Its a sad day when the cops round up a few teachers and think it is worthy of national news.

interesting point. there are a few real criminals, serious criminals that have lived off destroying other peoples lives that still are left alone. boiler rooms for example. you know who i mean

turns out the city police in the uk and the fbi are not as influential as the chinese who insisted that those call centre scammers targeting them get shut down

Edited April 26, 2018 by clash

[ezzra]

While they 'round up' and corral the odd jetsam and flotsam of Thailand's undesirables, hundreds others coming in on a daily basis using all points

of entry into the country, plug in holes in the incoming first at the same

time clean the place from whomever is not here legally or usefully....

[janclaes47]

5 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

Its a sad day when the cops round up a few teachers and think it is worthy of national news.

 

It's a sad day if they are able to round up, I think we are way over 300 by now, in schools alone

Edited April 26, 2018 by janclaes47

[Loaded]

online 'teachers' working without the appropriate visa and work permit next perhaps.

[mommysboy]

20 minutes ago, clash said:

i think it's true. alot of african non native speakers get jobs in local schools in the sticks and even get work permits with their nothing degrees from africa which are no better than the crap you could buy on kaosarn years ago. then they moonlight selling shit coke or doing romance scams or what ever other dodgy crap they are into. big joke knows this and is doing something about it. good for him

Maybe.  I guess we don't know.  But scamming brings in serious money I would have thought, whereas teaching English is hard graft, especially summer camps. Maybe they are pretty useless at both.  Just sounds peculiar.

[AGareth2]

19 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

And all of these criminals are working in the schools are they? I dare say there are some serious criminals working around the country. I would be much happier seeing the police target them, though that of course, could involve some real police work. Its a sad day when the cops round up a few teachers and think it is worthy of national news.

yes

but they are the tourist police

[mommysboy]

8 minutes ago, Loaded said:

online 'teachers' working without the appropriate visa and work permit next perhaps.

Troublemakers...more likely.

[clash]

8 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

Maybe.  I guess we don't know.  But scamming brings in serious money I would have thought, whereas teaching English is hard graft, especially summer camps. Maybe they are pretty useless at both.  Just sounds peculiar.

yes scamming brings in serious money. you only need to ask paul hayward and his mates who so far have got away with it, but i suspect not for long

[Cadbury]

41 minutes ago, clash said:

then there's all the filipino teachers who work for next to nothing. to get a qualified teacher with say QTS or similar who would get a job at Rugby school or something like that, i'd imagine they are paid over 100k and have other benefits too. the local schools just don't have the budget and if they do it's usually been creamed off

Thai school directors get a big kick-back from the employment agencies for taking on Filipinos. So it has nothing to do with the quality of teachers for the children; it's all about money in the pockets and purses of school directors.

Someone here once commented that the Filipinos teachers in Thailand are the cast-offs who cannot speak English well enough to get a job in the Philippines call centres. True or not I don't know but is sounds plausible.

Education in Thailand is not about education; it is about money and that partially explains why it is in the mess that it is. The same applies to policing.

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, clash said:

i'd say a few nigerians were in the mix, that's a pretty safe bet

I can't help thinking about a news sketch by The Two Ronnies in the years before PC became the norm'

It was a spoof news report about a plane crash where xxx people were on board.

Ronnie Barker read out   the passenger numbers on board in order of importance were xx british,  xx german, xx american and there might have been some others.

[djbarry]

2 hours ago, mommysboy said:

I guess the schools are doing summer camps and can't find normal teachers, but I just don't find the reports credible.  Quite honestly, I can't see any normal school letting illegal, non-native speakers anywhere near the kids.  Something a bit odd here!

I disagree...

[mommysboy]

1 hour ago, clash said:

i think it's true. alot of african non native speakers get jobs in local schools in the sticks and even get work permits with their nothing degrees from africa which are no better than the crap you could buy on kaosarn years ago. then they moonlight selling shit coke or doing romance scams or what ever other dodgy crap they are into. big joke knows this and is doing something about it. good for him

It's an unlikely scenario: scam artists, and drug dealers masquerading as teachers.  I reckon the reporting is not as accurate as it might be.

[Expatthailover]

2 hours ago, mommysboy said:

I guess the schools are doing summer camps and can't find normal teachers, but I just don't find the reports credible.  Quite honestly, I can't see any normal school letting illegal, non-native speakers anywhere near the kids.  Something a bit odd here!

Where does it say the illegals exclusively teachers and/or non native english speakers?

Seems to me they herded a mixture of all sorts.

Besides just because one is a native speaker doesnt mean they can teach english. I have encountered many a non native english speaker with far better diction and vocabulary than many brits. Take away the latters profanity laden sentences and many have nothing to say

Fortunately they are in the minority. 

Many of the bar rats give teaching a go to finance their nefarious lifestyle.

If they are not entitled to be in thailand they need deporting..end of.

Edited April 26, 2018 by Expatthailover

[Odysseus123]

4 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

It's an unlikely scenario: scam artists, and drug dealers masquerading as teachers.  I reckon the reporting is not as accurate as it might be.

Or..it is just a cheap publicity campaign.

 

Creating self importance and popularity amongst what is essentially an Imperial Chinese feudal barony

 

 

 

[clash]

4 minutes ago, Expatthailover said:

Where does it say the illegals exclusively teachers and/or non native english speakers?

Seems to me they herded a mixture of all sorts.

Besides just because one is a native speaker doesnt mean they can teach english. I have encoumtered many a non native english speaker with far better diction and vocabularly tham many brits. Take away the latters profanity laden sentences and they have nothing.

Fortunately they are im the minority. 

Many of the bar rats give teaching a go to finance their nefarious lifestyle.

If they are not entitled to be in thailand they need deporting..end of.

you just have this weird obsession that thai is god. it's kind of cute. you'll learn

and your english is kind of pants so hopefully you're not sharing that with the locals

Edited April 26, 2018 by clash

[lemonjelly]

They’re hardly serious criminals if they have to grind the hours away teaching English for downwards of 30k to cover their criminal activities. The recent “Outlaw Foreigners X-Ray” is  just going for low hanging fruit that don’t have any Puyai protection whilst at the same time making great photo and speech opportunities for the all important and lavish opening and closing ceremonies.

[mommysboy]

1 hour ago, Expatthailover said:

Where does it say the illegals exclusively teachers and/or non native english speakers?

Seems to me they herded a mixture of all sorts.

Besides just because one is a native speaker doesnt mean they can teach english. I have encountered many a non native english speaker with far better diction and vocabulary than many brits. Take away the latters profanity laden sentences and many have nothing to say

Fortunately they are in the minority. 

Many of the bar rats give teaching a go to finance their nefarious lifestyle.

If they are not entitled to be in thailand they need deporting..end of.

 

In the text.  We can reasonably infer that the aim was to catch scammers, etc, and some were to be found in the many schools they raided.

 

You could be right though- in which case I can only think the teacher related arrests are to beef up the numbers, as it wouldn't be much of a press conference otherwise.

 

Most farang teachers these days have at least a degree and a TEFL qualification.  It is true that perhaps this was not the case a decade ago.

 

In all my years of teaching, I very rarely found a non-native speaker (South Africans excluded) who could handle the language as well as an 'A' level student in the UK.  

Edited April 26, 2018 by mommysboy