Enforcement checking for Foreigners on overstay !

[Mac Mickmanus]

3 minutes ago, mikeymike100 said:

I think you are correct, but surely if you give them your name, nationality, DOB, obviously telling the truth, they can check the database, this done in other countries, USA, UK etc?

If you were on overstay, you could just give someone else's name and details when asked 

[mikeymike100]

2 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

More apologist rubbish from our resident ‘Thai apologist farang hater’... 

 

This approach by the BiB is invasive and clumsy...  We don’t see such raids in Western nations because the police know this is a very poor approach. 

 

Here the police take this bullish rough approach to those in entertainment venues rather than doing more to protect those in such places (i.e. running full inspections etc).

 

 

Quite so. Immigration have a 'secure' database of every foreigner entering and leaving the country, including pictures and fingerprints. Most tourists will be staying in hotels where the hotel must report who is staying to the police. I know some long term folks have condo, houses etc, but they must send a 90 day report in? So the police only have to after the real criminals, those that are on overstay, dealing drugs etc. Presumably these kind of folks dont frequent discos, they keep their head down.

Raiding these places full of foreigners on the off chance of catching someone is over the top. They should do some detective work instead, then if they get a tip off that a particular venue has some criminals, fair enough, raid it, but just randomly raiding bars, discos etc doesn't work well and upsets the real tourists.

[mikeymike100]

11 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

If you were on overstay, you could just give someone else's name and details when asked 

Right, but when they check the database, it has your picture, so unless you have a twin they would find out?

[Mac Mickmanus]

3 minutes ago, mikeymike100 said:

Right, but when they check the database, it has your picture, so unless you have a twin they would find out?

There isn't even a database that they can check though , that's why you need to carry I.D with you at all times

[mikeymike100]

2 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

There isn't even a database that they can check though , that's why you need to carry I.D with you at all times

When you arrive at the airport, what do think the IO does? He swipes your passport and it brings up all your past history. When you go to immigration for say an extension of stay, what do they do, they pull up your details on their database, it has your photograph, history and probably fingerprints. The average cop may not have access to the database, but obviously immigration cops do? Dont they have some smart BMWs?

You are supposed to carry ID cos the cops are lazy.

[ThomasThBKK]

12 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

There isn't even a database that they can check though , that's why you need to carry I.D with you at all times

Of course there is. What an absolute nonsense comment.

[mikeymike100]

3 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Of course there is. What an absolute nonsense comment.

Right On! Otherwise why have immigration officers?

[Mac Mickmanus]

3 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Of course there is. What an absolute nonsense comment.

What I did mean was there there isnt a database that the officers in bars doing raids have access to , rather than there not being a database anywhere 

[mikeymike100]

Just now, Mac Mickmanus said:

What I did mean was there there isnt a database that the officers in bars doing raids have access to , rather than there not being a database anywhere 

Right, understood, but surely if they are looking for over stayers they would have immigration cops that do have access, they must be able access it remotely. Checking ID by looking at passports is just  a lot easier.

[Mac Mickmanus]

10 minutes ago, mikeymike100 said:

When you arrive at the airport, what do think the IO does? He swipes your passport and it brings up all your past history.

Has all that been nationalised now ?

Previously it was only localised and entry's at Hat Yai wouldn't show up art Mae sais database 

[jacko45k]

50 minutes ago, mikeymike100 said:

I think you are correct, but surely if you give them your name, nationality, DOB, obviously telling the truth, they can check the database, this done in other countries, USA, UK etc?

They never seem to carry any equipment with them that can do live checks with immigration files.....just a gun, a phone and a bag for the money! ???? You did make me think some fingerprint scanners, like they have at the airport, with live access to records, would work wonderfully!

[Orinoco]

32 minutes ago, mikeymike100 said:

 why have immigration officers?

Maybe to collect large sums of cash from expats that don't have 800,000 in the bank for there 12 month retirement extension.  

 

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Orinoco

[Mac Mickmanus]

1 minute ago, Orinoco said:

Maybe to collect large sums of cash from expats that don't have 800,000 in the bank for there 12 month retirement extension.  

 

 

What does you emoji mean ?

Was you making a joke or sarcasm or a genuine suggestion ?

If it was a genuine suggestion, then they wouldn't be able to find out whether anyone had 800 000 in the bank or not 

 

[Orinoco]

7 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

What does you emoji mean ?

Was you making a joke or sarcasm or a genuine suggestion ?

If it was a genuine suggestion, then they wouldn't be able to find out whether anyone had 800 000 in the bank or not 

 

It was a joke mate about, why have immigration officers.

don't read to much into it.

 

Still had time to edit it, is that better

Edited November 5, 2022 by Orinoco

[mikeymike100]

18 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Has all that been nationalised now ?

Previously it was only localised and entry's at Hat Yai wouldn't show up art Mae sais database 

It was supposed to happen in 2018, when they started putting in those fingerprint scanners.

Now whether is has been done, is anyone's guess

 

[Mac Mickmanus]

29 minutes ago, mikeymike100 said:

It was supposed to happen in 2018, when they started putting in those fingerprint scanners.

Now whether is has been done, is anyone's guess

 

So there may not be a national data base which is accessible by the authorities  on the street and thats why they want to see a valid visa held by the person 

[Gottfrid]

4 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

More apologist rubbish from our resident ‘Thai apologist farang hater’... 

 

This approach by the BiB is invasive and clumsy...  We don’t see such raids in Western nations because the police know this is a very poor approach. 

 

Here the police take this bullish rough approach to those in entertainment venues rather than doing more to protect those in such places (i.e. running full inspections etc).

 

 

Not a hater of foreigners. I have said, many times that I am one myself. Would not be a healthy thing to walk around and hate myself. How would you feel doing such thing?

Neither an apologist of Thais. There are many who do crazy stuff and they many times have a too quick fuse. However, this has nothing to do with that. What is clumsy and invasive? They are the police. They have the right to do their job. The job includes checking bars and nightclubs, drugs and illegal activities of foreigners such as overstay, carrying prohibited drugs or using such. Here they chose to do that at the same time. What is wrong? You don´t have anything to worry about if you do not use drugs or go to places know for that or are on overstay illegally in the country. Why would you consider it invasive and clumsy if you are in the clear. Let them check and give them a smile.

[BigStar]

2 hours ago, mikeymike100 said:

You are supposed to carry ID cos the cops are lazy.

You are supposed to carry ID cos the law says you must. You don't carry ID cos you're lazy, stupid, careless, delusional, or hoping to delay your deportation an extra day or two. 

 

You don't have to carry ID showing your current Immigration status. But if asked you'll need to produce that passport, or have it produced if you're detained, within 24 hours.

Edited November 5, 2022 by BigStar

[persimmon]

Now with face recognition technology , they don`t even need to see the p/p - one pic should tell them everything they need to know .

[mikeymike100]

1 hour ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

So there may not be a national data base which is accessible by the authorities  on the street and thats why they want to see a valid visa held by the person 

Certainly possible knowing Thailand, they started in Feb 2018 , but were supposed to finished in 6 months, I haven't seen any update.

[mikeymike100]

37 minutes ago, BigStar said:

You are supposed to carry ID cos the law says you must. You don't carry ID cos you're lazy, stupid, careless, delusional, or hoping to delay your deportation an extra day or two. 

 

You don't have to carry ID showing your current Immigration status. But if asked you'll need to produce that passport, or have it produced if you're detained, within 24 hours.

Its fair enough they give you 24 hrs to produce your passport.

Most tourists going out would only have their passport as ID, not a local DL or ID card. As many have commented taking your original passport out with you if you were going out for a night drinking is a crazy thing to do. If the police raid a venue looking for over-stayers surely they would have a portable fingerprint scanner to check people IDs as other countries have.

Having said that if you carry a picture of your passport and visa,on your phone that should suffice.?

 

 

[mikeymike100]

1 hour ago, persimmon said:

Now with face recognition technology , they don`t even need to see the p/p - one pic should tell them everything they need to know .

You would think so, they take your pic every time you enter and leave the country.

 

[Mac Mickmanus]

3 minutes ago, mikeymike100 said:

You would think so, they take your pic every time you enter and leave the country.

 

There has been the suggestion that Thailand doesn't have facial recognition technology and they need to send photos to the company abroad who developed the technology to get a identification of a match (of two photos)

[JimTripper]

2 hours ago, mikeymike100 said:

Its fair enough they give you 24 hrs to produce your passport.

Most tourists going out would only have their passport as ID, not a local DL or ID card. As many have commented taking your original passport out with you if you were going out for a night drinking is a crazy thing to do. If the police raid a venue looking for over-stayers surely they would have a portable fingerprint scanner to check people IDs as other countries have.

Having said that if you carry a picture of your passport and visa,on your phone that should suffice.?

 

Maybe that's why a lot of lower end hotels want to hold the passport at the front desk, and take a copy at least. Holding it at the desk seems required in Vietnam. Not for people that don't pay the bill, but for cops to ID people.

 

Otherwise, what happens if your single, the cops would need to goto your hotel and rummage through your stuff or with you in tow to find out who you are. Not reasonable.

Edited November 5, 2022 by JimTripper

[BigStar]

3 hours ago, mikeymike100 said:

Having said that if you carry a picture of your passport and visa,on your phone that should suffice.?

What exactly will suffice is an open question. Most have taken that to be a Thai DL, a paper copy of passport, a pink card, etc. (We may now have 20 posts as everyone needs to tell what they carry.) The phone pics is a recent hipster invention, but there has been one case related here of a member who presented the phone pics for ID and they were accepted.

 

Me, I cover all the bases, probably overkill. Any "valid" (as interpreted at the time) ID meets the requirements for ID and will almost certainly be accepted except in circumstances where you happen to fall under suspicion of a possible crime; and then will need to produce the passport.

 

So the average person, keeping his nose clean, staying away from dodgy situations inviting a police sweep, really has nothing to worry about. Again we can fill 20 pages here w/ old timers who've never been asked for ID, including me. On rare occasions I need to show my DL at a road checkpoint, but I'm not being singled out.

Edited November 5, 2022 by BigStar

[brianthainess]

22 hours ago, Bert got kinky said:

Is it still there ?

I believe so but I am informed that 'John The Book' finally checked out of the Traveler's Rest Hostel, RIP John.

 

Sorry but I forgot to mention this was in Hong Kong, is that what you were talking about ?

[Mickeymaus]

Who are typical overstayers? Criminals or other people hiding here. Dead people perhaps even killed. People who don't care about regulations. People who can't get a visa for whatever reason - age, financials. Any others? I think looking for such people at entertainment venues is a bit unfocused. But perhaps they wanted to check for drugs and business licences anyway. 

[Bert got kinky]

21 hours ago, brianthainess said:

Sorry but I forgot to mention this was in Hong Kong, is that what you were talking about ?

Yes Hong Kong.

The Traveler's Rest was on the 16th floor of A block and was a Mecca for backpackers.

John the book was an absolute legend, he was wasting away (IIRC he had MS) and never left the hostel (ever), he just shuffled about the hostel.

He would buy travel books from backpackers passing through and sell them to other backpackers to sustain his existence.

He must have met and dealt with thousands of travelers and as mentioned above, became quite a legend, apparently a very interesting man to meet.

 

Sorry to other posters for taking this thread off topic. 

 

 

[kinyara]

I place importance on suitable I.D. carrying from the far more likely scenario of a potential accident/emergency situation, nothing to do with the remote possibility of a police venue raid. Even if a tourist is only here for a couple of weeks having a laminated credit card sized copy of passport I.D. page with you at all times is such a simple no brainer for any or worst case scenario. Always the final part of my annual extension renewal. 

 

Don't mind targeted police raids with solid intel, but cynical towards the reactive media showboating clampdowns that happen after an adverse event hits the headlines which lets face it tends to be the norm.