Aranyaprathet Visa Mafia

[edwardandtubs]

I know it's old news that there's a visa scam going on in Aranyaprathet, but on a recent visa run I was surprised at how this little mafia operation seems to have completely corrupted the whole town so that it's now impossible to avoid if you're doing an independent visa run. In the past the orange-shirted moto driver offered to get me a visa but I declined and that was the end of that. On this occasion there was a goon waiting at an intersection before the border to Cambodia and after an exchange of nods with the moto driver I was taken to the fake Cambodian Consulate.

This building is surprisingly convincing-looking and had about five official-looking guys claiming to represent Cambodia. I ignored them and told my driver to go to the border but the mafia goon claiming to represent Cambodia said that visas were not available at the border. When I continued to ignore him and tell the driver to go to the border the goon told me they had moved the border! I then firmly told the driver to go to the border quickly and the goons gave him a nod of permission to leave. I wasn't fooled because I knew what to expect but I'm sure many people are being tricked and intimidated into handing over cash for an overpriced visa. Are the visas they're issuing even valid? If not the victim would have to pay for yet another visa at the border.

I told my driver to hurry up and no more BS so he took me to the border but about 100 metres before the official road block there was another goon and another exchange of head nodding. He stopped in front of another, smaller, fake Cambodian Consulate and yet more goons trying to sell me a visa. I told them I wasn't interested in their BS and they shouted obscenities at me as I walked away.

I find it surprising that the Thai authorities are allowing this. Given how much this mafia outfit has spent on employees and buildings, they must be very confident that their operation will be allowed to continue. I'm sure it isn't difficult to bribe the local police but this is going on in full view of the army and immigration authorities. It's bad for Thailand's reputation that the corruption is even worse on the Thai side of the border than the Cambodian side. Given the number of tourists who must be getting scammed here, I would have thought someone in Bangkok would want to stamp this out but obviously they just couldn't care less. It's only a matter of time before these aggressive goons seriously injure or kill a tourist and then the story will be all over the media. It should be stamped out before this happens.