Thai Government Tightens Border Controls to Prevent Illegal Entry

[webfact]

 

By Paphamon Arayasukawat

   

BANGKOK (NNT) - Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has instructed security authorities to step up surveillance along the country’s borders, to prevent migrants sneaking into Thailand and the spread of COVID-19 from neighboring countries.

 

Deputy government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said the prime minister also stressed that local quarantine facilities and field hospitals must be made available to accommodate Thai returnees crossing the borders.

 

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat said the Centre for Resolution of the Emergency Situation has been cracking down on illegal migrants and smugglers. Thais wanting to return home must register for certificates of entry (COE) from Thai embassies and consulates. Registrations can be made at http://dcaregistration.mfa.go.th.

 

He said immigration checkpoints at land border crossings are open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for Thais who want to return from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos or Malaysia. For those who want to enter Thailand by water, Thai crew members must register for COEs before entry, while foreign crew members are still not allowed into the country, except for humanitarian or economic reasons.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2021-05-22

 

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[Surelynot]

This is hardly on a par with the UK .............allowing 15 million a month visit at the start of the pandemic......even now, with India on the Red List there are still 100 flights a week coming into Heathrow.......got to keep those variants coming.......

[RotBenz8888]

15 minutes ago, webfact said:

step up surveillance along the country’s borders

Is this the 53rd time they step up security along the boarders, I've lost count. Should look like the Atlantic Wall by now. 

[brucegoniners]

Uh I have a question. They're just doing this now?

 

Maybe about 5 months ago would have been better. Or how about ALWAYS!

[trainman34014]

More holes than a Cullender; no hope and besides; too many people making large amounts of money bringing/letting people in !

[law ling]

Hard to believe he's had to give this direction AGAIN.

 

And it's not just migrants, there would be day-traders popping in and out, cargo lorry drivers just waved through, and big-wigs on casino jaunts, etc ...

 

I suppose he's now realized the truth: that he doesn't really control that much - and that private fiefdoms everywhere make all the calls (and collect all the "fees").

 

It couldn't have been the plan that the coup and new constitution would now make him the object of scorn by most of the country for mismanagement of this.

[PETERTHEEATER]

This is the third Government order to tighten border control........

[natway09]

Being right on the border right now, I am telling you this is a monumental task guys & for those of you spouting on Thai visa from the comfort of your armchair to have 100% non arrival rate is just not feasible with the extent of the land borders.

Most folks from islands like OZ, NZ & UK just have no comprehension of just the terrain alone even with 50,000 border patrols  it is an unenviable task in particular that in the past it did not really matter

[rasmus5150]

I believe this item will be sold out in many border towns in Cambodia and Myanmar.

 

 

[Almer]

Trump is at a loose end ask him how to do it

[Burma Bill]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

to step up surveillance along the country’s borders, to prevent migrants sneaking into Thailand

 Easily said by the Czar in Bangkok, but the reality is (as photographed at Baan E Tong in Kanchanaburi Province). Similar along the porous border between Burma and Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai Provinces. 

 

 

The view is looking towards Burma and you can see a remote Burmese military outpost with both countries flags in the bottom right.

The distance from Kanchanburi to Maesai (the northern most town in Thailand) by road is around 860 kms but the border weaves its way along valleys, mountain ridges, jungles and rivers for a much longer distance. In my opinion 24/7 surveillance would be impossible and many desperate Burmese people trying to escape the Junta's terrorism would go to any length to cross illegally into Thailand. 

[law ling]

1 hour ago, natway09 said:

Being right on the border right now, I am telling you this is a monumental task guys & for those of you spouting on Thai visa from the comfort of your armchair to have 100% non arrival rate is just not feasible with the extent of the land borders.

Most folks from islands like OZ, NZ & UK just have no comprehension of just the terrain alone even with 50,000 border patrols  it is an unenviable task in particular that in the past it did not really matter

 

Point taken.

 

However, the PM has an army of 360,000 at his disposal - yet he issues this directive to "scurity authorities" ... whoever they are - the police?

 

The stakes are high (increasing infections, snail-pace vaxing) - no one here wants to be part of an India- or Brazil-like state of chaos.

[WhiteBuffaloATM]

shameless political propoganda.... again....

thai land borders wide open....can never be controlled

rich thais bringing in burmese as cheap labour

forget these borders simply raid the large farms / factories/ construction sites/ shanty towns, round ‘em up and truck out the illegals in convoys......

if you are really serious.......will disrupt rich thai money flow.......oh wait ........

[mlmcleod]

Closing the barn door after the cows are out?  They have had over a year to do this right!

[wprime]

There is a Thai idiom about fixing the fence after the cow has escape. I feel that's very apt here.

[digger70]

Thai Government Tightens Border Controls to Prevent Illegal Entry

 

They should've started  doing that 2 yrs ago when all this trouble started . 

They've could've stopped thousands of people from Sneaking in the country being Illegal backdoor crossings or Crooked border Officials and agents.

It's going to be Very difficult  to sort it now.

[Surelynot]

1 minute ago, digger70 said:

Thai Government Tightens Border Controls to Prevent Illegal Entry

 

They should've started  doing that 2 yrs ago when all this trouble started . 

They've could've stopped thousands of people from Sneaking in the country being Illegal backdoor crossings or Crooked border Officials and agents.

It's going to be Very difficult  to sort it now.

Too much money to be made......corruption at the border......people smugglers........cheap labour for Thai businesses......uphill struggle taking all that away.

[Ventenio]

3 hours ago, natway09 said:

those of you spouting on Thai visa from the comfort of your armchair

 

Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And that my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

[rudi49jr]

Completely impossible, not only logistically, but also practically, because too many people make lots of money letting/helping people in (and out) of the country. 
 

Heard a brilliant story not too long ago. The best jade in the world is found in Shan State, in Myanmar. When a particularly valuable stone (worth millions of dollars) is found, some merchants from HongKong are flown in. They land in Chiang Mai, are smuggled across the border and bid on the stone. The one with the highest bid gets the stone, they come back to Chiang Mai and fly back to HongKong, with the stone. Easy peasy. If you have enough money to throw around, anything is possible, certainly in a corrupt country like Thailand.

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

This is the third Government order to tighten border control........

And not the last I bet...