Biometrics Wow! Immigration and media report nine cases where system came up trumps

[webfact]

Biometrics Wow! Immigration and media report nine cases where system came up trumps

 

Picture: Naew Na

 

A vinyl board at immigration proclaimed that the 2 billion baht biometrics system was wonderful. 

 

Naew Na repeated the claim in their headline after nine people were arrested with fake passports and visa stamps at Suvarnabhumi airport through November. 

 

Several of the cases showed that the fake documents were not picked up on in several other countries including Europe, notes Thaivisa. 

 

But they were spotted in Thailand. 

 

Picture: Naew Na

 

Here are the cases all of which happened at Bangkok's main airport:

 

1. On November 5th a Mexican man was found to be travelling on a group tour with 11 others. He had already travelled from Mexico via Paris then Barcelona and was planning on a five day trip to Thailand. His passport photo was only a 20% match to his face. He admitted using someone else's and was arrested. 

 

2. On November 7th a Chinese man whose face only had a 20% match to his passport picture was stopped after arriving from Morocco where he worked. He admitted using a relative's passport and was arrested.

 

3. A man of unknown real name and nationality was arrested while checking in at counter B10 for the British Airways flight to London on November 13th. He was due to transit to Madrid and was found to be in possession of a fake Israeli passport. 

 

4. On the 22nd a Bangladeshi man was found to be travelling on a fake Canadian passport while in transit from China. He said he had bought the fake from a Pakistani man called Mohamed for the equivalent in Bangladeshi money of 426,000 baht. 

 

5/6. On the 22nd two Moroccans were stopped on their way to work in Spain with fake visas. They were about to board Qatar Airways on Canadian passports. They said relatives in Spain had organised the fake stamps so they could work in the country. They paid 133,000 baht equivalent. 

 

7. A Taiwanese national was stopped with a fake passport on his way to Jakarta, Indonesia on the 24th.

 

8. A Chinese man was stopped with a fake Chinese passport on the 26th.

 

9. On the 27th a man of unknown name and nationality was stopped with a fake Philippines passport. He had travelled to Thailand from Brazil via Ethiopia. 

 

Source: Naew Na

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-12-10

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[zydeco]

How many people have been stopped, interrogated, harassed, and then proven innocent?

[Captain Monday]

25 minutes ago, zydeco said:

How many people have been stopped, interrogated, harassed, and then proven innocent?

What is this even supposed to mean? If biometric tech flags a traveler for closer scrutiny they go on their way when their documents are found to be in order. Do you want people traveling to Thailand on false documents?????

[Matzzon]

That´s great! More trash stopped at the border or found and deported. 

[sammieuk1]

Thought they had nailed the president from the headline surely one impostor to get rid of????  

[legend49]

Amazing Thailand, 2 billion baht catches 9 persons, lol.

[zydeco]

3 minutes ago, legend49 said:

Amazing Thailand, 2 billion baht catches 9 persons, lol.

And at least five were just in transit, not even entering Thailand.

[cnx355]

2 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

What is this even supposed to mean? If biometric tech flags a traveler for closer scrutiny they go on their way when their documents are found to be in order. Do you want people traveling to Thailand on false documents?????

Imagine if they would link the system to Interpol database and Thai Police warrants.  They would catch a lot more interesting people with money that can enter at the moment and hide in Thailand.

[RichardColeman]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

He said he had bought the fake from a Pakistani man called Mohamed for the equivalent in Bangladeshi money of 426,000 baht. 

That's like £10,000 or $12,000 - What loony. 

[RichardColeman]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

2. On November 7th a Chinese man whose face only had a 20% match to his passport picture

20% ? I;m guess that 20% was just picking up he had a head

[from the home of CC]

sounds like a lot of gate keepers asleep at the switch, that's scary in this day and age..

[Fex Bluse]

1 hour ago, cnx355 said:

Imagine if they would link the system to Interpol database and Thai Police warrants.  They would catch a lot more interesting people with money that can enter at the moment and hide in Thailand.

Or imagine if they used it to catch Thais. 

 

Half the country would have been caught, as the average Thai - according to prominent Thai academics, even at The Nation - are habitual law breakers. ????

[ukrules]

Complete waste of money

[Geonoise]

and you still can cross the land-border on so many places......

[Scot123]

Why all the press conferences and patting yourself on the back. Do they even comprehend how stupid it makes them look. 9 people ~ 5 not even entering Thailand and only 3 people trying to enter. Wow! UK is about the same size, same population and I wonder how many the UK immigration stop every hour and not one press conference. My question is finding 9 is that like the bomb detectors which had a less than by chance success rate? So much noise I'm starting to think these are fake machines. 9 really only 9?

[StayinThailand2much]

1 hour ago, Geonoise said:

and you still can cross the land-border on so many places......

Or the green border; e.g. from/to Laos could easily cross over when the river bed is dry. Real criminals wouldn't queue up at airport immigration. Only small, unintelligent, crooks do...

[lamyai3]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

A vinyl board at immigration proclaimed that the 2 billion baht biometrics system was wonderful. 

The plastic bag ban comes in next month, are vinyl posters included? Maybe vinyl-shaming will be one of the stories of 2020, after they fish a Big Odious poster out of the drain... 

[Number 6]

This is great. I'm pleased that Thailand is pleased with it's whopping expenditure on security.

 

This is not news.

 

What's worse is it's technology doing its job. The cops have nothing to do with it.

 

I'm convinced a family member has a business making vinyl posters.

 

[Toadie]

What was the latest number of expected tourists / arrivals? 3+ million per month?

 

So you got 9...

 

Does somebody arrange the media presentation /  release, print everything up, gather everybody then say okay show me what you got?

[sunnyboy2018]

11 hours ago, Matzzon said:

That´s great! More trash stopped at the border or found and deported. 

They are just ordinary human beings like you and me. Not trash at all. No need for you to get excited in such a vitriolic way. Its a bit wierd actually. To have such hate filled feelings is disturbing enough but to voice then publicly is very odd and hints at an underlying problem.

[Stargeezr]

Good for Thailand to have a modern system that has caught people, when

other countries have not. Good work.

Geezer

[Benmart]

20 hours ago, zydeco said:

How many people have been stopped, interrogated, harassed, and then proven innocent?

The purpose of screening is to deter crime and if my life is interupted or inconvenienced at the airports around the world and Thailand, then I deal with it and move on. The position you take is without merit unless you can propose an alternative method and the authority to impliment it.

[PremiumLane]

19 hours ago, Matzzon said:

That´s great! More trash stopped at the border or found and deported. 

I wait with glee when you are deemed as 'trash' and are kicked out - don't tell me, you are model citizen ???? 

[Matzzon]

1 hour ago, PremiumLane said:

I wait with glee when you are deemed as 'trash' and are kicked out - don't tell me, you are model citizen ???? 

Your little try at posting a feasty comment failed at the end. First talking about waiting for me beeing kicked out, and then citing that I might be a citizen????

Since when have people started to wait for the country´s immigration to start kick out their own citizens? 

However, you can still wait with your glee and other friends if you have any. I am not a citizen. 

[mvdf]

If true that they were able to board flights in first world countries without their spurious passports being detected, this would be extremely disturbing and scary. Imagine someone with ulterior motives boarding the same flight you're flying on and easily clearing immigration with someone else's passport. I can't understand how some of these people can easily slip through the system in places like Europe where they have this sophisticated second generation Schengen Information System (SIS) and Interpol databases all interlinked to each other. How is it that they are all caught in BKK?

[Captain Monday]

23 hours ago, cnx355 said:

Imagine if they would link the system to Interpol database and Thai Police warrants.  They would catch a lot more interesting people with money that can enter at the moment and hide in Thailand.

People "with money" are not always criminals. Thailand just needs to interface better with other countries to keep out undesirables.

I don't think for example people who are convicted in their own country of violence, drunk driving, thefts, etc. should be allowed into Thailand, even if their documents are valid. 

[joebrown]

16 hours ago, sunnyboy2018 said:

They are just ordinary human beings like you and me. Not trash at all. No need for you to get excited in such a vitriolic way. Its a bit wierd actually. To have such hate filled feelings is disturbing enough but to voice then publicly is very odd and hints at an underlying problem.

Sorry to say Sunnyboy2018 that you're banging your head against a brick wall, but I do agree the vitriol is a bit OTT. I think his time is wasted on this forum and someone should give him a uniform and a gun, so he can protect Thailand's borders from this plague of human trash and garbage that's intent on invading and then destroying the pristine reputation of the Kingdom.

[brianthainess]

On 12/11/2019 at 9:41 AM, Matzzon said:

Your little try at posting a feasty comment failed at the end. First talking about waiting for me beeing kicked out, and then citing that I might be a citizen????

Since when have people started to wait for the country´s immigration to start kick out their own citizens? 

However, you can still wait with your glee and other friends if you have any. I am not a citizen. 

And the slanging match begins. you are not citizen ??

[cnx355]

On 12/11/2019 at 1:21 PM, Captain Monday said:

People "with money" are not always criminals. Thailand just needs to interface better with other countries to keep out undesirables.

I don't think for example people who are convicted in their own country of violence, drunk driving, thefts, etc. should be allowed into Thailand, even if their documents are valid. 

Sure, I know people with money are not necessarily criminal; I have some friends that make good money legally.  You are correct, I should have been more specific . Criminals with a lot of money and connections can <sometimes> fool the system by getting false documents and providing large sum of money to local people that can let them in and stay hidden without having much problems.