Ten foreigners arrested in Phi Phi area for illegal dive work

[webfact]

Ten foreigners arrested in Phi Phi area for illegal dive work

 

Picture: Naew Na

 

Krabi immigration swooped arresting ten westerners who they say were working illegally for a dive company.

 

The bust was in the middle of the sea and back on land at a dive shop. 

 

Arrested were men from Greece, Italy, Britain and Israel. Also nabbed were women from Denmark, America and Britain. Their ages ranged from 23 to 39. 

 

Most of them were arrested in the sea off Koh Poda Nok.

 

Arrested on land was an eleventh man from Myanmar who did not have a work permit. 

 

The boat had the name "World Dive" on the front. 

 

Naew Na said that this was part of immigration chief Lt-Gen Sompong "Big Oud" Chingduang's drive to rid Thailand of illegal foreigners. 

 

They advised the public to continue calling 1178 to report transgressions. 

 

Source: Naew Na

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-01-31

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[tifino]

hope the cave diver wasn't moonlighting?

 

 

 

[cornishcarlos]

4 minutes ago, webfact said:

Naew Na said that this was part of immigration chief Lt-Gen Sompong "Big Oud" Chingduang's drive to rid Thailand of illegal foreigners. 

 

Been foreigners working illegally in the dive business since it started here !!

There are some good Thai dive professionals but not nearly enough to meet the demand...

Another nail in the tourism coffin ?? Probably not, just one company annoyed another company, who then stitched them up :)

[Farangwithaplan]

I'm suprised that with the Thai labour laws anyone can even do a divemaster course in Thailand. Divemaster course literature requires a trainee DM to assist an instructor with training open water or Discover Scuba divers. Or did at least when I used PADI's course literature.

 

How is that not working even if it is required for training?

 

[bluesofa]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Krabi immigration swooped arresting ten westerners who they say were working illegally for a dive company.

Could this be seen as Thai Immigration sinking to new depths? I just can't fathom it out.

[RotBenz8888]

Is this what they're gonna use the submarines for, look for foreign dive instructors?

[RichardColeman]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The boat had the name "World Dive" on the front. 

Named after Thailand then ? 

[thequietman]

That's it - concentrate your resources towards this!

 

Never mind about the burning, not being able to breathe, schools having to close down as a result & the Corona virus.

 

Priorities people, priorities. ????

[katatonic]

50 minutes ago, thequietman said:

That's it - concentrate your resources towards this!

 

Never mind about the burning, not being able to breathe, schools having to close down as a result & the Corona virus.

 

Priorities people, priorities. ????

Using the resources of immigration to combat crop burning - that would really be thinking out of the box..

[legend49]

So has Immigration got a Smartboat now to add to the fleet of Smartcars?

[thequietman]

9 minutes ago, katatonic said:

Using the resources of immigration to combat crop burning - that would really be thinking out of the box..

Very likely that Burmese etc. are doing the burning for the land owner. So yes, there is a crossover. However, they need to get out there and get off their collective asses. Chances of that happening - Zero. ????

[thequietman]

13 minutes ago, legend49 said:

So has Immigration got a Smartboat now to add to the fleet of Smartcars?

Surprisingly ............. Yeeeesssss. ????

[CNXexpat]

Some years ago many dive companies offered to teach Thais for free to become a dive instructor. The problem was, that only a few Thais applied - and most of them couldn´t swim.

[yellowboat]

7 hours ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

Been foreigners working illegally in the dive business since it started here !!

There are some good Thai dive professionals but not nearly enough to meet the demand...

Another nail in the tourism coffin ?? Probably not, just one company annoyed another company, who then stitched them up ????

Many a Thai asks me about jobs in and outside the country, as they are having trouble paying their bills.  If being a strong swimmer and being able to take a course that leads to decent employment is all that is needed,  I know people who need money enough to give it a try.

 

Larry's dive off Sukhimvit.  Use to be the place where divers use to drink.  The Good thing the place shutdown before the green wet blankets usurped power. 

[Tchooptip]

You do not have to be very clever to still work without a work permit in the current conjuncture, I speak at least for the farangs. The Asians of the neighboring countries, even if some get caught they are more likely to be able to hold years without problems, the farangs not anymore like a few years ago.

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Ten foreigners arrested in Phi Phi area for illegal dive work

No mention of what happened to the captain or boat owner then?

Just a Wai & carry on

 

[ThomasThBKK]

1 hour ago, CNXexpat said:

Some years ago many dive companies offered to teach Thais for free to become a dive instructor. The problem was, that only a few Thais applied - and most of them couldn´t swim.

They would be quite useless anyway if they don't speak english tho...

 

There's not enough decent thai english speaking dive instructors in thailand, but i guess thailand doesnt need tourism anymore...

[rabang]

 

2 hours ago, yellowboat said:

Many a Thai asks me about jobs in and outside the country, as they are having trouble paying their bills.  If being a strong swimmer and being able to take a course that leads to decent employment is all that is needed,  I know people who need money enough to give it a try.

 

 

Most Thais I know, young and old, would go to work in the West in a heartbeat if given a chance. They ask me advice but seem to have no idea how difficult it is to find a job from outside without any special skills, many not even being able to speak other languages than Thai. Many go to South Korea to work illegally, even taking the risk knowing full well there is a big chance they will be denied entry, because it is one of the few higher income countries not requiring a visa.

Edited January 31, 2020 by rabang

[daoyai]

2 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

They would be quite useless anyway if they don't speak english tho...

 

There's not enough decent thai english speaking dive instructors in thailand, but i guess thailand doesnt need tourism anymore...

...or French, Japanese, Hebrew etc.  ... the classroom part of the dive course is technical. no way thais can manage a dive industry without foreigners.

[Boomer6969]

11 hours ago, cornishcarlos said:

Been foreigners working illegally in the dive business since it started here !!

There are some good Thai dive professionals but not nearly enough to meet the demand...

Another nail in the tourism coffin ?? Probably not, just one company annoyed another company, who then stitched them up ????

They should get proper work permits, I reckon that any decent dive operation would have enough jobs (crew, cooks, handimen, compressor operators, etc) to meet the required quotas for a handful of foreign Dive Instructors and Dive Masters.

[Don Mega]

Did they use the Smart BMW's ?

[Ventenio]

I was in the last meeting.  

 

Pollution?   I asked.....  "Huh, you wait for wind you dumb farang."

Coronavirus?  I inquired... "You dumb farang, 100 percent you no worry."
Road fatalities?  I politely wondered...... "you no have accident, OK OK."

Prostitution?  I smiled... "Farang, not your country.  you go now."

Well, what's our top priority?

 

dive instructors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!        oh, ok kap kap

[Tropposurfer]

7 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Could this be seen as Thai Immigration sinking to new depths? I just can't fathom it out.

shame on you for stooping to such obvious puns lol ... But wait, I seem to be drawing some strange gratifications from them .... ???? 

[SMEinBangkok]

They rolled the dice and crapped out.  Hard to understand the sympathy shown by many here, and failure to enforce one set of laws doesn't mean that all laws have been revoked.  I pay what I consider to be a pretty decent sum of money to remain in Thailand legally with a work permit.  These people decided to go the cheap way (much cheaper!) and got caught.  I hope they're in jail awaiting deportation and blacklisting.  The entire reason the rest of us endure these increasingly difficult immigration regulations and problems stems from foreigners working/living illegally here.

Edited February 1, 2020 by SMEinBangkok

[Wiesel]

20 hours ago, CNXexpat said:

Some years ago many dive companies offered to teach Thais for free to become a dive instructor. The problem was, that only a few Thais applied - and most of them couldn´t swim.

If the Dive-Shops would pay same salary to "Thais" as they pay to farangs much more thais would like to work in the Dive-Industrie 

[jonclark]

22 hours ago, SMEinBangkok said:

They rolled the dice and crapped out.  Hard to understand the sympathy shown by many here, and failure to enforce one set of laws doesn't mean that all laws have been revoked.  I pay what I consider to be a pretty decent sum of money to remain in Thailand legally with a work permit.  These people decided to go the cheap way (much cheaper!) and got caught.  I hope they're in jail awaiting deportation and blacklisting.  The entire reason the rest of us endure these increasingly difficult immigration regulations and problems stems from foreigners working/living illegally here.

I am in exactly the same boat (no pun intended) as you regarding my work and life situation. However I hope that they are given a fine for working illegally and then immigration works with the dive company to ensure that they are provided with the correct documents to get work permits so that they can pay tax, like you and I.  Seems a more constructive and progressive solution, than jailing them at the expense of the tax payer until they can be deported. 

 

BTW in the OP. I love the term 'illegal foreigner' .. It is illegal to be a foreigner in Thailand. Well done immigration. 

 

[Don Mega]

22 hours ago, SMEinBangkok said:

They rolled the dice and crapped out.  Hard to understand the sympathy shown by many here, and failure to enforce one set of laws doesn't mean that all laws have been revoked.  I pay what I consider to be a pretty decent sum of money to remain in Thailand legally with a work permit.  These people decided to go the cheap way (much cheaper!) and got caught.  I hope they're in jail awaiting deportation and blacklisting.  The entire reason the rest of us endure these increasingly difficult immigration regulations and problems stems from foreigners working/living illegally here.

What do you consider to be a decent sum ?.

 

A work permit costs about Bt. 3500, not sure how much the extension cost but my initial visa was Bt.2500 ($120AUD).

 

So approx 6k not including extension.

[ChipButty]

How much do these dive instructors get paid?

[impulse]

On 1/30/2020 at 8:29 PM, Farangwithaplan said:

I'm suprised that with the Thai labour laws anyone can even do a divemaster course in Thailand. Divemaster course literature requires a trainee DM to assist an instructor with training open water or Discover Scuba divers. Or did at least when I used PADI's course literature.

 

How is that not working even if it is required for training?

 

Why's that a problem?  Foreigners can get a WP to be a dive instructor.  Tourists can take dive classes as long as they're not getting paid to be there.  It's not work.  It's recreation.

 

Where they then get into trouble with a WP is petty things like manual labor, including carrying the students' gear for them.  That comes under a different job category than dive instructor.  Not unlike unions back home, where you need a plumber, a carpenter and a painter to fix a leak in a wall.  Because the union says a plumber can't do carpentry, and the carpenter isn't allowed to paint.  There were also a few cases where the WP called out a location at the dive shop, and divemasters were being banged up for working at the dock, but that was a few years back.