Immigration chief: Don't scare the tourists away by being too strict - we need them and their money

[DrTuner]

42 minutes ago, hansnl said:

Probably, in his train of thoughts, we are "glorified" tourists.

That's exactly what the majority of "expats" here are. Easy enough to check, the stamp on the passport says "Admitted until", because it's a temporary stay permit. Only PRs, of which there aren't many, are not perpetual "tourists".

[ThaiBunny]

4 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

That's exactly what the majority of "expats" here are. Easy enough to check, the stamp on the passport says "Admitted until", because it's a temporary stay permit. Only PRs, of which there aren't many, are not perpetual "tourists".

Exactly - there's a reason why the visa many is on is called "NON-Immigrant"

[rexall]

3 hours ago, Filipplenoir said:

Just last week a russian lady was bitten by a monkey in Phuket. Pharmacy sold her some pills. On way back from the hospital friendly police decided to check her passport. And also her bag. Found pills without prescription. She spent 2days in prison. Now on 10 k bail. Lawer wants 1.2 mil to speedify the case. Otherwise could take 3 months to return to st Petersburg. Read it https://russian.rt.com/world/article/693830-tailand-lekarstvo-apteka-tyurma-rossiyanka

Insanity.  

Makes no sense.  First there is pharmacy, then a hospital???  I hope she was at the hospital getting rabies and tetanus injections. I don't know what kind of "pills" she got from the pharmacy, maybe something for the pain.  I am a little bit out of the loop, but can you even get any "good stuff" at a local pharmacy without a connection?  Do they even have it? Something doesn't make sense.

[legend49]

5 hours ago, kelboy said:

It's all to late,all the tourist have heard and are going elsewhere. Also saving a lot of money. 

But this will be a nice piece of media I can post overseas to all my friends just to help them in their decisions to go to Vietnam or Indonesia. He has sealed IM fate with this statement.

[Guderian]

Honesty - a rare commodity here - do Thai people's noses grow longer when they tell the truth, because they seem to be able to lie with impunity?

[evadgib]

26 minutes ago, banagan said:

Sort out the Thai baht.
Scrap the pointless T-M30.
Scrap the 90 day reporting for long term expats.

Fix the toxic air for 1/4 of the year up north.

 

Probably too late to un-5hit the bed.

 

Grant longer termers PR & tie it to good behaviour (drink driving an' all that!)

[rexall]

1 hour ago, lamyai3 said:

Initially it was denied entry and flew out after two days in detention, but it then managed to get back in at the Laos border...

"It"???  Who are you talking about, the monkey that bit the Russian lady?  ????

[pieeyed]

Kind of like choosing the barn door after the horse has bolted.

[Emdog]

Comments growing faster than I can keep up, so maybe someone already posted this:

They do need to be more strict. Specifically with Thais who are in contact with tourists, including the police. When police can own businesses, such as jet skis, what hope is there that the scams will stop? Zero to none I reckon.

 I have no problem with police busting drunk and disorderly tourists, as doing so is a benefit for all people here. But I also reckon that there is probably some "protection money" paid by scammers and legit businesses that puts their interests ahead of any complaint or problem tourists might encounter.

[marqus12]

15 minutes ago, rexall said:

am a little bit out of the loop, but can you even get any "good stuff" at a local pharmacy without a connection?  Do they even have it? Something doesn't make sense.

Even pharmacist for the night 555

[Stoker58]

Short term tourists come, stay for a few weeks, and leave. They rarely have any dealings with immigration.

it’s the long term ex-pats who are on the receiving end of all their bad attitude.

[Borzandy]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

And he has stated plainly that Thailand needs the tourists' money.

Money No 1, safety No 2.

[rexall]

51 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

We don't like you but want your money would have been more honest

I think this has always been the case. Only those with the rosiest rose colored glasses failed to see it. But in the "old days" it was better. There was more of a live-and-let-live, detente sort of attitude. I think mature people realize that while it is nice to be liked, it is hardly necessary to get along, as long as everyone is benefitting in some way.  

[marqus12]

"A little late" , even Foreigners with Thai families are considering Vietnam

and other SEA countries .

[phantomfiddler]

But isn,t it the need for the tourist dollar that is encouraging Pattaya,s finest to be so harsh

[hansnl]

4 hours ago, SmartyMarty said:

there's still well over 35 million coming here annually.

Really?

[Ebumbu]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Big Oud

 

The bigger they come, the harder they fall. 

[ParkerN]

5 hours ago, Pilotman said:

wow, finally a sensible instruction/comment from an Immigration chief.  Bet they don't take any notice. 

The people in the front line will pay it the attention it deserves. None.

 

Th job of police in Thailandis not to enforce the law, it's to extort money and pass it up the ladder. The sooner foreigners come to terms with this, the sooner Thailand will begin to make sense.

[inwardglee]

"Be humane to them - because we need their money."

 

Now here the Thai version of humanity, it is for the sake of making money, and not for the sake of humanity. Wow!

 

[johnmcc6]

Mean while immigration extorts billions of baht from expats 800000 baht locked away at 1ercent interest while SOMEONE makes a bundle lending  it out at 7%. To me that makes 400000 baht i no longer spend in my local community each year .

[EricTh]

Does that mean they will abolish all these insurance nonsense?

[Felt 35]

5 hours ago, bluesofa said:

I'm sure that means in plain Engrish:

We won't change the regulations and apply them consistently. We'll leave the regulations as they are, then when tourism picks up and have enough victims, we can start making money out of them again.

 

Always as before and after Asian financial crisis, Tsunami, Bangkok Burning etc., 

[maddermax]

Pity they don't apply the same reasoning to us residents!

[Reigntax]

Soon we will come and they may welcome us with a lei. 

[Benmart]

6 hours ago, Pilotman said:

wow, finally a sensible instruction/comment from an Immigration chief.  Bet they don't take any notice. 

I think, much like you, that it is all talk and no action. An opportunity for public exposure, a photo op and another ribbon on the chest is what is the result. Pathetic.

[KenKadz]

Talk is Cheap and Change begins at the Top.

Immigration chief Lt-Gen Sompong Chingduang needs to get his own house in order first by mandating that all the immigration offices work from the same set of rules and regulations, and making them public and transparent for both staff and customers.

[Isaan sailor]

Yes, funny how they ignore the plight of expats.  We spend far more in a year than a dozen week-long tourists do,  

And we have enough connections in our home countries, that a negative reference can hurt future tourism.

[dougiemac52]

6 hours ago, keith101 said:

What and expats living here do nothing for the economy , maybe you should look at ways of helping us instead of making it harder .

Think its a bit late for this. On my last 3 occasions with TR I have been grilled by the IO time. And its a bit off putting to say the least.

Surely if my TR has been granted and paid for there should be none of the shenanigans that some of us have endured 

[fittobethaied]

6 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

Shouldn't that be "fewer"?

 

I wonder what happens to all the posters after they've been used (just once, can they be printed on the back too?), some of our local shops / food outlets have recycled advertising posters as blinds, not seen an immigration/police one yet.

 

I finally figured out why the police always line up for a photo op behind the criminals they catch. They remind me of the Japanese soldiers during WWII when a group of them would line up behind bodies of the dead for their photo op.

 

 

My stepdaughter just completed her booklet of accomplishments as a government English teacher to present to her superiors to plead for a pay raise. She included all the photos taken at all the various events in which she participated in the past few years, and those all serve to demonstrate her good works which might merit a promotion and pay raise. I guess the coppers have the same sort of system, so the more photos they produce with their mug in the background, the better chance they have for a nice pay raise. That, plus they use the photos/videos in an attempt to convince the public that they are actually fighting crime and not just robbing the public at police check points, extorting businesses for protection money, running drugs, massage parlors and gambling establishments....not to mention a host of other corrupt practices.   

 

 

[Destiny1990]

The concept of Chasing away 1000 longer staying visitors in order to catch one illegal worker is a very foolish approach.

And TM30’s and airport interrogations aren’t helping either !