New Immigration Bureau boss signals new orders so police can easily track down foreign suspects in Thailand

[webfact 106804]

Scenes from the arrest of 37-year old Robert A. in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok on Saturday the 2nd October after he, earlier that week, brutally raped a 45-year-old masseuse in Khon Kaen and attacked a 12-year-old girl on the side of the road. 

 

by James Morris and Son Nguyen

 

The newly installed immigration police chief wants to create a climate of fear against foreign criminals who are waiting for the opportunity to use Thailand as a base for their operations once inward tourism resumes into the country on a wider scale when the COVID-19 crisis ends.

 

He says better screening and database technology has already helped to make Thailand less of a paradise for these types who use the country for drug trafficking and a range of online scams that not only damage the country’s reputation but cause harm to Thai people.

 

Thailand’s new Immigration Bureau boss wants a tighter ship when it comes to tracking foreign residents in the kingdom and tourists. It came after it took police five days last week to arrest an American man who is alleged to have raped a Thai woman in Khon Kaen with police eventually tracking the man down to a Bangkok address. Police Lieutenant General Pakpoomphiphat Sajjapan has also revealed that under new entry vetting procedures, Thailand’s Immigration Police can now halt any passenger boarding a plane for Thailand if the person is deemed a threat to the security and well being of the country. The new police boss wants to see an improvement in security databases and intelligence on foreigners living in Thailand going forward.

 

Full story: https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2021/10/10/police-boss-wants-tighter-rein-on-foreigners/

 

-- © Copyright Thai Examiner 2021-10-14

 

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[RichardColeman 39908]

8 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thailand’s Immigration Police can now halt any passenger boarding a plane for Thailand if the person is deemed a threat to the security and well being of the country.

Considering the amount of people getting back into the country by changing or adjusting their name, they will only be denying idiot criminals entry

[sirineou 19948]

Yes Yes, 

In another thread about attracting tourists to Thailand I talked about the brilliant Idea to increase the tourist tax at this time. It seems that the brilliant Ideas keep on coming.

 

Increased user fees, departure taxes, and increased security might all be good ideas. But someone needs to tell these people about the concept of "Right place wrong time".

[mbenson 255]

Wait a minute. It was no more difficult to capture this guy than it would be to capture a Thai suspect. In fact, because he is farang, it was probably easier. So now this triggers some sort of new vetting and surveillance program? They figured out who this guy is and where to find in him in one or two days.

 

Just what Thailand needs a xenophobic immigration honcho, who wants to increase vetting on tourists! 

[Crossy 33777]

Sadly, whilst I do think increased vetting is a sensible idea, I suspect this initiative will result in a standard Thai "sledge hammer and nut" solution.

 

It's far easier to assume we are all criminals on the run than it is to actually filter out the bad guys.

[Chad3000 272]

53 minutes ago, webfact said:

police chief wants to create a climate of fear

Welcome millionaires!!

 

 

Good move! I mean we are all rapists and thieves anyway. Right

Edited Wednesday at 09:40 PM by Chad3000

[NanaSomchai 258]

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

Considering the amount of people getting back into the country by changing or adjusting their name, they will only be denying idiot criminals entry

Not quite, they now have biometric scanning technology at their disposal at every entry/exit point of the Kingdom, be it by land, air or sea since mid 2019.

 

Once your biometrics details have been entered into that database, you're stored there for virtually... forever.

[NanaSomchai 258]

34 minutes ago, Crossy said:

It's far easier to assume we are all criminals on the run than it is to actually filter out the bad guys.

Thai thinking 101.

[mvdf 677]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The new police boss wants to see an improvement in security databases and intelligence on foreigners living in Thailand going forward.

Don't forget improvements in security databases and intelligence on police officers murderously extorting millions from detained suspects, lifestyle checks and financial audits on such police officers to ensure all those ferraris, bentleys, lambos, maseratis, pateks, rolexs aren't "borrowed".

 

[zzaa09 3970]

Hmmmm....

And what of Thai suspects? 

[Crossy 33777]

1 minute ago, zzaa09 said:

Hmmmm....

And what of Thai suspects? 

 

Details, details!

[ezzra 48993]

As the old saying goes: "New broom sweeps well" every head of department who comes in flex their muscles and brag a lot, the proof is the pudding we shall wait and see...

Edited Wednesday at 10:29 PM by ezzra

[scubascuba3 14186]

Criminal record check

[Oxx 4030]

What, the 90 day reporting isn't good enough to track down all these criminals quickly? Perhaps they should make it 7 day, or every day, reporting.  That would work.

[mikebike 4370]

39 minutes ago, zzaa09 said:

Hmmmm....

And what of Thai suspects? 

 

38 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

Details, details!

Yes. It is, of course, the Immigration Bureau who runs all investigations into native Thai criminality. How can they possibly be so neglectful and only speak of immigration-related issues?

[Tarteso 4156]

So we are all suspects until proven otherwise

 

what a Country!

[Orinoco 1015]

Wing nuts at it again.

LOL.

[ALLSEEINGEYE 3508]

Arrest all of the RTP and crime would likely go down considerably.

[Boomer6969 3120]

Thai thinking: without the poison from abroad Thailand would be free of crime.

 

 

[NanaSomchai 258]

2 minutes ago, Boomer6969 said:

Thai thinking: without the poison from abroad Thailand would be free of crime.

 

 

Precisely.

[sikishrory 333]

The irony here is the cop with the motorcycle gang shirt on

[jacko45k 24324]

1 hour ago, NanaSomchai said:

Not quite, they now have biometric scanning technology at their disposal at every entry/exit point of the Kingdom, be it by land, air or sea since mid 2019.

And is it all still working and being used? 

[TheFishman1 2539]

Amazing Thailand I have read that many thia people. Who have arrest warrant out and it takes them 5 to 10 yrs to caught them TIT

[jacko45k 24324]

3 minutes ago, TheFishman1 said:

Amazing Thailand I have read that many thia people. Who have arrest warrant out and it takes them 5 to 10 yrs to caught them TIT

And they are usually in the long grass behind their mother's house. 

[phetphet 2763]

I sense a new "Track Farang" app coming.

 

Please. You must download this app so that we can check where  you are.

[NanaSomchai 258]

25 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

And is it all still working and being used? 

Yes it is. Why wouldn't it be used? Not only it has cost the Thai taxpayer a whopping 3 billion baht but also was hailed as a success from the current administration.

 

I also vaguely remember that some unwanted previously blacklisted Russian guy had changed his name to a different one and showed up in Thailand with a Kazakstan passport, while he managed to sneak into the country under both a different name AND a different country of origin, the biometric system caught up eventually then a few weeks/months later down the road he was arrested while either trying to leave the Kingdom or while visiting a local immigration from within to renew/extend his visa.

 

From a purely technical standpoint; with 40 million visitor entries being scanned and subsequently added to the database per year, every year, I don't think the biometric system has the technical capabilities to compare a matching set of fingerprints against another set of fingerprints stored in a remote database in real time, however as the laid out exemple above shows with proper computing power, time and training the algorithm will eventually catch up and find matching prints/biometric profiles over time.

 

Thus one could potentially deceive the biometric system temporarily *once* with a different Firstname/Surname/Country of Origin (also many passports do not mention Place of Birth or Current registered address), long enough to pass the basic immigration database checks at any of the Kingdom's entry points (airport queue, queue at a land border, etc), fool a non suspecting immigration officer and be released in the wild in the Kingdom but rest assured the system WILL eventually over night, over the lapse of a few days, weeks or months (no one has access to that kind of information) catch up and match up both profiles.

 

I recall clearly the article's conclusion mentioning that once arrested again, the previously blacklisted Russian was blacklisted under his new name/Kazhakstan identity as well and was thrown out of the Kingdom yet again.

 

Biometrics systems exist for a reason, Thailand has spent several billions buying/invested into a German system, I wouldn't say it is flawless (no such system exists, there's always a flaw) but it appears to do the job, the only way to fool it/circumvent lies within you; your face and your fingerprints. Even though if you *potentially* could fool the facial recognition part by dyeing your hair, growing a beard, returning 20 years later, wearing glasses, having facial surgery corrections here and there, you'd still be caught out by the tip of your fingers.

 

TL;DR: Yes the Thai biometrics system is working just fine and this whole foreigner tracking mantra is only going to get worse with time as technology improves and the Kingdom has access to it, even if tomorrow the current junta was thrown out and replaced by another foreigner-Friendlier government, the biometrics system would still be in place.

 

To those who are saying that Thailand had been used as a regional hub for all criminals around the World for decades, rest assured that time is over.

Edited Wednesday at 11:53 PM by NanaSomchai

[Resident Alien 102]

16 minutes ago, Boomer6969 said:

Thai thinking: without the poison from abroad Thailand would be free of crime.

Should Thai logic also be applied to tourists?

 

Not so long ago we had a minister who did something naughty and got caught in Oz with, if I remember correctly, washing powder in his possession.

He was allowed to be a minister, because he was caught and convicted outside Thailand, and this had no influence here in Thailand.

Here he was considered innocent because it happened outside Thailand.

In short, foreigner did something bad outside Thailand should be considered innocent honest tourist until they do something bad here in Thailand. 555

Don't think it will work this way though.

[jacko45k 24324]

3 minutes ago, NanaSomchai said:

Yes it is. Why wouldn't it be used?

I had heard finger print scanning was fairly random, and another reason could be lack of maintenance and devices out of order, for which the country is famous. 

I hope you are correct... as keeping out foreign undesirables is fine by me.... at the moment we still seem to have them a plenty. 

Edited Wednesday at 11:48 PM by jacko45k

[NanaSomchai 258]

Just now, jacko45k said:

I had heard finger print scanning was fairly random, and another reason could be lack of maintenance and devices out of order, for which the country is famous. 

I doubt it, the contract was 3 billions for the entire biometrics system installation AND it's maintenance, I strongly believe there's also a maintenance fee thrown in the pot, probably 10 years or something, just like when you buy a car from a cars dealership and the first 1/2/3 years of basic car maintenance are included in it's price.

 

In fact it DOES make sense as I doubt the average Thai IT consultant (let alone within the RTP) would be on par/standards with a German ran/owned IT consultant as we've all seen with the recent data breaches/leaks all over Thailand.

[farangroby 111]

Quote

"police can easily track down foreign suspects in Thailand

Who knows what orders will be issued to easily track down cops like jonny ferrari