Big Joke turfs out more than 70 foreigners - champion had near six year overstay

[somtumwrong]

1 hour ago, from the home of CC said:

Just making it harder and more complicated for people who actually follow the rules to be with their wife or legitimately want to retire here. 

Thanks, Big Joke. It's making it better and easier for people who actually follow the rules to be with their family in Thailand. Getting rid of the farang low class prevents normal farangs from looking bad / associated with sex tourists in the eyes of decent Thai people.

[lkv]

15 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

Yes some countries even give them free housing and a monthly allowance.................but that doesn't mean it should be that way.

No, it should not be that way, and I am not saying that overstaying is good, but if I was a short term tourist and I would see so much military and police in these tourist areas, I'd be wondering perhaps if I landed in Pyongyang instead of Bangkok.

[BobbyL]

I would love to know which 'International Schools' are the ones that seem to be continually raided by this guy. 

[FritsSikkink]

24 minutes ago, lkv said:

Domestic propaganda, nothing to do with overstayers.

 

The current administration does not fancy foreigners in general.

 

Every country has overstayers, buy they don't call it X Ray Outlaw Foreigner.

Actually the previous government didn't like foreigners, this one is making staying here easier

[lkv]

2 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Actually the previous government didn't like foreigners, this one is making staying here easier

Well, that's your opinion. Been here 7 years and my feeling is it's been going downhill since 2014 in all aspects.

[FritsSikkink]

3 minutes ago, stanleycoin said:

a victimless crime.  way to go 

 

and a few of them were  teaching kids in schools.

Heinous crime I must say,.

 

And today's other news 

70 more people died on the roads

and a dark skinned man was arrested for calling someone a lizard with small tits.

 

 

teaching without any proper qualifications otherwise they could get a proper visa.

[FritsSikkink]

1 minute ago, lkv said:

Well, that's your opinion. Been here 7 years and my feeling is it's been going downhill since 2014 in all aspects.

been here longer

[BobbyL]

31 minutes ago, lkv said:

 

Every country has overstayers, buy they don't call it X Ray Outlaw Foreigner.

That is a good point. The name for it is massively inappropriate. 

[stanleycoin]

13 minutes ago, somtumwrong said:

Thanks, Big Joke. It's making it better and easier for people who actually follow the rules to be with their family in Thailand. Getting rid of the farang low class prevents normal farangs from looking bad / associated with sex tourists in the eyes of decent Thai people.

Oh deer.

 

[Somtamnication]

I feel so much safer now.

[lkv]

4 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

been here longer

I don't dispute that. Maybe you are more hooked in this environment than I am at the age of 36, but I am reading countless other opinions from people saying that if they had the oppportunity to go without anything holding them back, they probably would.

 

But we are going off topic, my point was I don't think anyone enjoys living in a military state.

[stanleycoin]

3 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

teaching without any proper qualifications otherwise they could get a proper visa.

what get qualifications like all the great Thai teachers. 

[StayinThailand2much]

6 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Actually the previous government didn't like foreigners, this one is making staying here easier

True. The governments that were even more anti-foreigner were the ones 2001-2006 (Thaksin) and 2011-2014 (Thaksin's puppets).

[StayinThailand2much]

31 minutes ago, stanleycoin said:

what get qualifications like all the great Thai teachers. 

Don't belittle Thai teachers' qualifications: they may be unable to effectively teach, encourage independent thinking, or even control a class without yelling at the school kids, but they are very good at teaching dancing, making costumes, floats for Loi Krathong, or reading from a book... All very useful in a person's future life: think of Bar Mitzvahs, dressing-up parties, etc. - And as for more practical needs, there are always the 4-week Thailand engineering courses, where you can learn and qualify so easily... ?

[janclaes47]

46 minutes ago, BobbyL said:

I would love to know which 'International Schools' are the ones that seem to be continually raided by this guy. 

 

Ever considered that it might be different ones each time.

 

Maybe one near you is next.

[hansnl]

2 hours ago, Maverell said:

How is removing overstayers making it harder and more complicated for the rest of us?

Wait & See.......

[Tiredofglasshalfemptyexpat]

2 hours ago, from the home of CC said:

Just making it harder and more complicated for people who actually follow the rules to be with their wife or legitimately want to retire here. 

Why? Nothing more easy than having money in the bank and a picture of your wife in the house .. Much easier than nearly any other country in the world. 

[DoctorG]

Rather than being fined/deported, if you can manage to overstay for 5 years without attracting any police then you should be given a prize, and revert back to day one.

I cannot decide if I am serious or joking. You choose.

[Patanawet]

1 hour ago, darksidedog said:

Heinous criminals? Overstaying a visa, is most certainly against the law and also pretty stupid, but hardly heinous. Taking low hanging fruit, for quick headlines, is how I would describe this and I would far prefer to see a few rapists, murderers and thieves rounded up, which seems to happen way too rarely.

Have you booked in for an irony implant yet?

[Oziex1]

Still the question is not being asked as to why this stuff is not being taken care of on a normal day to day basis by all the other tourist police and why this creep needs all the publicity.

 

I'm not convinced this is anything other than a publicity stunt to have us believe there is effective law enforcement ready to pounce. 

 

 

[hkt83100]

I am just wondering how these "no money needed" visa companies can be legal...

[mike1967]

I don't know about other countries but the way the pound is crashing against the baht there won't be any Brits left to chuck out!!!

[bkkcanuck8]

1 hour ago, KittenKong said:

I would not be at all surprised to hear that most of those who overstay have something to hide, such as an outstanding warrant for some major crime somewhere. In fact you can see reports of that every week on here.

Many of the dregs of the world end up in Thailand, often having previously been in Spain until that country also cleaned up its act.

I look at the numbers and although the Thai/English media here highlights have maybe one or two westerners caught -- the vast majority of those caught are regional migrants (illegal) here to eek out a living.  The numbers seem to indicate the highlighted people were not the target, but just the byproduct of the campaign.  The media coverage is all about politics and raising his profile for advancement.  It is very interesting that these operations are not being conducted by immigration police - but - tourist police.   The vast majority of those caught are not going to be major criminals - in fact, I doubt if any of them will be... and if they were they would not be in custody long as major criminals have the funds available to get themselves out of this type of situation.  

 

What will happen though is that as Big Joke has been able to play the media game by big public operations -- others will see this and think they should also do the same thing where possible... It won't be about doing the job but being seen to do the job for future employment prospects.

[GaryAdriaenssens]

Good job joke! It's a real plague here.

[Small Joke]

2 hours ago, StayinThailand2much said:

It's a sign of the time; more and more countries getting tougher on people who don't follow the rules. Just watched a clip on Youtube about Australia kicking out unwanted New Zealanders: criminals, wife-beaters, biker-gang members (who weren't even convicted of any crime). And these two countries have close ties...

Too right. 

Although,  with biometric passports almost universal now,  why do we get criminals jetting around in the first place at all. 

Doesn't make me feel safer knowing that those,  and other malcontents can freely travel for crime and terrorism,  and yet the sham of checking in with a jobsworth in a fishbowl at every airport worldwide,  persists. 

Borders by now should be invisible,  with no bloke in a booth, but digitally EFFECTIVE. ?

[phycokiller]

nationalism is popular world wide at the moment, if you are a foreigner in thailand I wouldnt be gloating about them catching overstayers cos you will be next in line

[FritsSikkink]

1 hour ago, lkv said:

I don't dispute that. Maybe you are more hooked in this environment than I am at the age of 36, but I am reading countless other opinions from people saying that if they had the oppportunity to go without anything holding them back, they probably would.

 

But we are going off topic, my point was I don't think anyone enjoys living in a military state.

Personally I think they are doing a good job so far.

[phitsanulokjohn]

The latest "X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner" campaign - number 20 in the series.

 

So how many episodes in each series are there, and how many series will there be?

 

It's my guess this could be in for a longer run than The walking dead.

[tropo]

This campaign is misnamed. It should be "operation X-Ray foreigner" because to find outlaws they need to X-Ray everyone. I wonder if BK & co accept payments?

[soalbundy]

2 hours ago, StayinThailand2much said:

Indirectly, cause it's possible that officials and lawmakers decide to toughen up the rules for the law-abiding folk too: higher financial and other requirements, shorter visa extension periods... With so much publicity towards the 'outlawed foreigners', a certain public image and opinions are created.

That would only increase the number of overstayers. These days it should be possible to locate overstayers immediately if there was a good central database, who has (legally) entered the country, who has left, who now have visa extensions, who hasn't renewed the extension and hasn't left etc, red flags and last known address.