Phuket Crackdown On Russians Heads North

[bunuel]

Every country in world tourism industry wants fewer clients who spend more, and not more clients who spend less. This is common sense. It is also good business sense,since invasions of attractive destinations by hordes of low rollers from any country will tend to drive the high rollers away. In the US, there was a saying when certain southern Italians moved into an area : " There goes the neighborhood." That is exactly what is going on now in Phuket and Pattaya, and it is bad for business and bad for foreigners who are already here. Thais I talk to see exactly what is going on, and they don't like heing pushed around in their own country by rude aggressive foreigners.

This is only the beginning - and Thais need to take action to plan their tourism development a lot better than this before its too late.

Tour operators selling Phuket and Pattaya as low budget mass tourism destinations need to he stopped, especially if they are foreign.If this traffic is lost to Vietnam or Cambodia, so much the better!

uote name="LazyCat" post="6244927" timestamp="1364370897"]people you all sound like u've been paid by Russians really there's too many of them there, they are trying to survive doing anythibg that brings money ( remember the couple of Russians who were offering to tourists make photo with their monkey ) its rediculous!!! Soon you will see beggars and street bums from CIS countries !!! Really, i hope this will help to clear up the space a bit. Thailand is a nice place no need to fill it with rubbish people.

[Andre0720]

How Phuket people are stupid !

As most of Thai people don't speak another language than thai, they cannot serve Russian tourists who don't speak english while coming to Thailand on holidays.

Also the Russians don't steal the jobs of unskilled thai people !

Being bored of whiny mafia people !

P.S. LOL so ugly his shirt. Too many ugly shirts to sell in supermarkets in Thailand. Difficult for a farang to look handsome with Big C ugly clothes !

One could say the same about people from other countries, Chinese people is a good example.

So why would it be that fewer if any complaints are about Chinese people.

So why would it be that I do not feel like I am in China when I walk down the streets.

So why would it be that we do not see business signs in chines all over.

There is something about Russians here. A take over or what?

[lemoncake]

who like russians ?only russians like russians

When I can work out the difference between the men and women I will tell you.

You're kidding right? Give me a good looking Russian babe with a real nose and proper sized legs over the pug nosed bandy legged Issan bar dregs any day of the week. And as for working out the difference between men and women, its not Russia with the transgender/tomboy/lesbian epidemic!

Why would you come to Thailand seeking a Russian woman when I hear (just a rumour) that Russia is full of them?

In Russia they cost more

[HaleySabai]

Yes,Clean up Phuket and get things back to normal......locally owned business offering their usual 'Steal of a Deal' to the tourists

According to Phuket Employment Office records, there are currently 1,005 foreigners of 17 nationalities registered to work in Thalang, including 109 English, 99 Russian, 80 French and 69 Italian nationals.

Geez!.... what a shit-show it must be down there!! Glad I live in little'o Chiang Mai.

[smotherb]

And how are they stealing Thai's jobs..... Are there any Thais living and working on Phuket who speak fluent Russian????????????????????????????????????

If they are working without a permit, they are stealing Thai jobs.

[NamKangMan]

This is good. It's never a good idea to have one ethnic group take over another country. Before the Russians, we had a mix from all over the world. It's getting like Little Russia here in Pattaya too. I want Thailand to remain Thai.

You want "Thailand to remain Thai" - wow, maybe we should all go home.

A Thai visa in a Russian passport is the same as the visa in your passport.

[BusyBee123]

so many comments with reference to thais not being able to speak russian, surely the russians should learn to speak thai!

isn't that part of the adventure of going to a foreign country, or should they come over on a russian flight, board a russian tour bus, go to a russian hotel, eat in russian restaurants then go home.

I've visited over 50 countries and at least half of them have their own language. With your logic I should be able to speak 25 languages in order to get what I want. Why would Russians want to learn Thai? Its a pointless language to learn and completely useless outside of Thailand. They want to their beach, bars, pizza restaurants and cheap tailors for their holidays. Not everyone wants to have an 'adventure' on their relaxing holiday in the sun. They have no more interest in learning Thai than I had learning Flemish when I passed through Belgium once.

But you speak thai though so your logic is <deleted> and it isn't because you work here, when you first came you too were a tourist who chose to learn the language, so don't patronise me with you smartarse responses.

[sirchai]

Was time to play "Russian Roulette " with them.....

[sirchai]

Did not realize Thai were Russian speaking hence how could Russians steal their jobs

They bring their chicks, they laundry "their" money. They do all sorts of stuff that puts Thais out of work. Nastrovgve......(Vodka glass landed behind me and broke)-

[Unkomoncents]

Anyone who has retired in Thailand or otherwise committed to living in the Kingdom should take careful note. If a few people (as I assume we're supposed to intuit from the article) can arbitrarily declare that foreigners of a particular nationality have stolen their jobs and then whip up this kind kangaroo court witch hunt, you can never assume that you will be safe in this country regardless of your visa status. Oh Thais. I just marvel at how they've convinced the world that they're gentle, sweet, and ever-smiling people while deep down inside they're just as brutish and thuggish as anyone else.

[phanangpete]

Yes mostly all very good points , I live in two places in Thailand for 8 yrs now, 5 yrs ago no problems then the Russkies arrive and start the takeover !..If not stopped the so called thai mafia will and are running scared, believe it or not they don't even know where the hell Russia is, i think the word 'mafia' describing the thai's was slightly on the exagerated side, small 'c....' big guns ' probably better.

I dont think that intimidating the C and big g's will have that negative affect , it may also help the law enforcement guys all over the Country.

Edited March 27, 2013 by phanangpete

[Andre0720]

This is good. It's never a good idea to have one ethnic group take over another country. Before the Russians, we had a mix from all over the world. It's getting like Little Russia here in Pattaya too. I want Thailand to remain Thai.

You want "Thailand to remain Thai" - wow, maybe we should all go home.

A Thai visa in a Russian passport is the same as the visa in your passport.

perhaps so.

But I want to walk down the streets and feel like I am in Thailand, not in Russia, based on all the signage....

[ThailandNoob]

Also the rules to obtain an WP en bussinesslicense are also very easy to untderstand.

So if somebody break them, its normal that some action is taken.

I have to disagree with this. I am a fully qualified teacher with a graduate degree. For a year I worked in Bangkok, teaching at one of the most prestigious universities there. Even though this was a government university, it was impossible for me to get them to get me a work permit because of the vast mountains of paperwork involved. So while normally I wouldn't have any sympathy with people working in a foreign country, in the case of Thailand my opinion is different because I know from first-hand experience that it is next to impossible to get one, due to how much of a shambles the system is.

I strongly suspect that the work permit system has stayed so dysfunctional for so long because Immigration has never really enforced it. If they want to start enforcing it, then they'll need to reform it so that it's actually possible for people to comply with it.

And I think it's totally stupid for Immigration to "crack down" on these Russians working in the tourist industry. Since a large proportion of the tourists coming from CIS countries are monolingual and desire services in their own language, working providing services to them is a job with a "necessity to hire a foreigner instead of a Thai employee" if there ever was one (unless there is some hitherto unseen pool of Russian speaking Thais large enough to handle the large and rising number of tourists monolingual in Russian).

To the people that have posted about how they travelled to foreign countries where they couldn't speak the language and no-one could speak theirs, and yet made it through, congratulations. I applaud your adventurous spirit. But just because that style of travel works for you doesn't mean that it works for everyone. Most tourists, for better or worse, wish to stay in a kind of "tourist bubble" where everything they want can be arranged with a minimum of fuss. Critical to this is the presence of speakers of a language which you are also fluent in. And for a lot of people from CIS countries, the only such language is Russian.

If Immigration persist with this extremely short-sighted move, then such tourists get fed up with being unable to access services in a language they speak, and take their roubles elsewhere. Even if they only spend 3,000 baht a day (still vastly more than the average daily wage across the country), with enough tourists this will still add up. And given how vastly overpriced a lot of the services are that are marketed towards Russians, I actually highly doubt this figure (3,000 baht per person for a cramped minivan ride from Pattaya to Koh Chang anyone?).

I'm pretty sure Immigration's real motivation here is to extort tea money from these Russian businesses. I personally know a foreign business owner who set up shop in Bangkok, employing dozens of Thais and only a few Westerners. When applying for work permits for himself and the few other Western staff, he was approached by some bigwig in Immigration, who told him in no uncertain terms that the applications would all be denied unless he paid what totalled to hundreds of thousands of baht (all naturally without a receipt). This was in spite of everything being above board. I've heard similar stories elsewhere.

How can people point the finger at these Russians as being criminals when Immigration is corrupt to the core? I'm sure that, for at least some of them, the only reason they lack a work permit is unwillingness to pay the bribes required to get one rather than anything underhand going on.

And all this talk of how this crackdown needs to happen because of the uncouth behaviour of Russian tourists or the "Russian mafia" smacks to me of racism. Has there been any mention of any of this kind of behaviour by any of the arrested people? Or of their links to organised crime? So far I have seen nothing more than speculation. I wonder what people's attitudes would be if random farang expats were getting arrested on trumped-up charges, justified by the fact that some Western tourists behave yobbishly, or that some Western expats are involved in organised crime.

[NamKangMan]

The problem is the WAY the Russians are doing things. While the rest of us at least TRY to fit into the Thai community little bit, The Russians, for the most part, blatantly don't try, and don't care from what I've seen.

Russians, by Thai and Western standards, are fairly rude,and generally treat the Thai's like sh*t, from what i can see. Their general way of doing things, while it may have made them successful in Russia, comes across in TL and very harsh, and non Thai like. So there's a bit more resentment when the a$$hole Russians are taking Thai jobs rather than those nice Aussie (for example) who at least hires some Thai, and treat them fairly well.

Its the Russians own undoing.

As much as TL like the Russian tourist money,

you really have to be a$$holes to generate this much animosity.

Maybe they can learn a lesson here.

Maybe we all can.

"While the rest of us try to fit into the Thai community a little bit" - I would like to know how many foreigners are in Thai gaols, and out of those foreigners, what percentage are Russian. The results might surprise you, since "the rest of us try to fit in." :)

[hellodolly]

And how are they stealing Thai's jobs..... Are there any Thais living and working on Phuket who speak fluent Russian????????????????????????????????????

Are you suggesting Thailand should change it's laws to make room for illegal Russians.

If I wanted a job Where i could speak English and every one understood me I would not go to Russia,

[lemoncake]

Did not realize Thai were Russian speaking hence how could Russians steal their jobs

They bring their chicks, they laundry "their" money. They do all sorts of stuff that puts Thais out of work. Nastrovgve......(Vodka glass landed behind me and broke)-

OH the money laundering myth again, do you actually know the amount of papers and work required to take money out of Russia? unless of course you still believe its in their suitcases

[deesamui]

this topic creates some sparks, I love that ! I hope they check all the h===ers in Papaya and KS, too

[hellodolly]

Also the rules to obtain an WP en bussinesslicense are also very easy to untderstand.

So if somebody break them, its normal that some action is taken.

I have to disagree with this. I am a fully qualified teacher with a graduate degree. For a year I worked in Bangkok, teaching at one of the most prestigious universities there. Even though this was a government university, it was impossible for me to get them to get me a work permit because of the vast mountains of paperwork involved. So while normally I wouldn't have any sympathy with people working in a foreign country, in the case of Thailand my opinion is different because I know from first-hand experience that it is next to impossible to get one, due to how much of a shambles the system is.

I strongly suspect that the work permit system has stayed so dysfunctional for so long because Immigration has never really enforced it. If they want to start enforcing it, then they'll need to reform it so that it's actually possible for people to comply with it.

And I think it's totally stupid for Immigration to "crack down" on these Russians working in the tourist industry. Since a large proportion of the tourists coming from CIS countries are monolingual and desire services in their own language, working providing services to them is a job with a "necessity to hire a foreigner instead of a Thai employee" if there ever was one (unless there is some hitherto unseen pool of Russian speaking Thais large enough to handle the large and rising number of tourists monolingual in Russian).

To the people that have posted about how they travelled to foreign countries where they couldn't speak the language and no-one could speak theirs, and yet made it through, congratulations. I applaud your adventurous spirit. But just because that style of travel works for you doesn't mean that it works for everyone. Most tourists, for better or worse, wish to stay in a kind of "tourist bubble" where everything they want can be arranged with a minimum of fuss. Critical to this is the presence of speakers of a language which you are also fluent in. And for a lot of people from CIS countries, the only such language is Russian.

If Immigration persist with this extremely short-sighted move, then such tourists get fed up with being unable to access services in a language they speak, and take their roubles elsewhere. Even if they only spend 3,000 baht a day (still vastly more than the average daily wage across the country), with enough tourists this will still add up. And given how vastly overpriced a lot of the services are that are marketed towards Russians, I actually highly doubt this figure (3,000 baht per person for a cramped minivan ride from Pattaya to Koh Chang anyone?).

I'm pretty sure Immigration's real motivation here is to extort tea money from these Russian businesses. I personally know a foreign business owner who set up shop in Bangkok, employing dozens of Thais and only a few Westerners. When applying for work permits for himself and the few other Western staff, he was approached by some bigwig in Immigration, who told him in no uncertain terms that the applications would all be denied unless he paid what totalled to hundreds of thousands of baht (all naturally without a receipt). This was in spite of everything being above board. I've heard similar stories elsewhere.

How can people point the finger at these Russians as being criminals when Immigration is corrupt to the core? I'm sure that, for at least some of them, the only reason they lack a work permit is unwillingness to pay the bribes required to get one rather than anything underhand going on.

And all this talk of how this crackdown needs to happen because of the uncouth behaviour of Russian tourists or the "Russian mafia" smacks to me of racism. Has there been any mention of any of this kind of behaviour by any of the arrested people? Or of their links to organised crime? So far I have seen nothing more than speculation. I wonder what people's attitudes would be if random farang expats were getting arrested on trumped-up charges, justified by the fact that some Western tourists behave yobbishly, or that some Western expats are involved in organised crime.

You say

"

And all this talk of how this crackdown needs to happen because of the

uncouth behaviour of Russian tourists or the "Russian mafia" smacks to

me of racism."

Your whole article sounds like racism towards the Thais.

[deesamui]

I forgot : and their russian pimps

[wotaplonker]

people you all sound like u've been paid by Russians really there's too many of them there, they are trying to survive doing anythibg that brings money ( remember the couple of Russians who were offering to tourists make photo with their monkey ) its rediculous!!! Soon you will see beggars and street bums from CIS countries !!! Really, i hope this will help to clear up the space a bit. Thailand is a nice place no need to fill it with rubbish people.

Did it ever occur to you the Russians with the monkey were "hired/employed" by a Thai so they would ALL make money????

Maybe the Thai guy with the monkey couldn't sell any photos because he couldn't speak any Russian, and the Russian tourist couldn't speak any English.

Bloody hell being hired by a thai probably for peanuts, to sell photos with a mankey monkey, now that is desperate

[lemoncake]

Also the rules to obtain an WP en bussinesslicense are also very easy to untderstand.

So if somebody break them, its normal that some action is taken.

I have to disagree with this. I am a fully qualified teacher with a graduate degree. For a year I worked in Bangkok, teaching at one of the most prestigious universities there. Even though this was a government university, it was impossible for me to get them to get me a work permit because of the vast mountains of paperwork involved. So while normally I wouldn't have any sympathy with people working in a foreign country, in the case of Thailand my opinion is different because I know from first-hand experience that it is next to impossible to get one, due to how much of a shambles the system is.

I strongly suspect that the work permit system has stayed so dysfunctional for so long because Immigration has never really enforced it. If they want to start enforcing it, then they'll need to reform it so that it's actually possible for people to comply with it.

And I think it's totally stupid for Immigration to "crack down" on these Russians working in the tourist industry. Since a large proportion of the tourists coming from CIS countries are monolingual and desire services in their own language, working providing services to them is a job with a "necessity to hire a foreigner instead of a Thai employee" if there ever was one (unless there is some hitherto unseen pool of Russian speaking Thais large enough to handle the large and rising number of tourists monolingual in Russian).

To the people that have posted about how they travelled to foreign countries where they couldn't speak the language and no-one could speak theirs, and yet made it through, congratulations. I applaud your adventurous spirit. But just because that style of travel works for you doesn't mean that it works for everyone. Most tourists, for better or worse, wish to stay in a kind of "tourist bubble" where everything they want can be arranged with a minimum of fuss. Critical to this is the presence of speakers of a language which you are also fluent in. And for a lot of people from CIS countries, the only such language is Russian.

If Immigration persist with this extremely short-sighted move, then such tourists get fed up with being unable to access services in a language they speak, and take their roubles elsewhere. Even if they only spend 3,000 baht a day (still vastly more than the average daily wage across the country), with enough tourists this will still add up. And given how vastly overpriced a lot of the services are that are marketed towards Russians, I actually highly doubt this figure (3,000 baht per person for a cramped minivan ride from Pattaya to Koh Chang anyone?).

I'm pretty sure Immigration's real motivation here is to extort tea money from these Russian businesses. I personally know a foreign business owner who set up shop in Bangkok, employing dozens of Thais and only a few Westerners. When applying for work permits for himself and the few other Western staff, he was approached by some bigwig in Immigration, who told him in no uncertain terms that the applications would all be denied unless he paid what totalled to hundreds of thousands of baht (all naturally without a receipt). This was in spite of everything being above board. I've heard similar stories elsewhere.

How can people point the finger at these Russians as being criminals when Immigration is corrupt to the core? I'm sure that, for at least some of them, the only reason they lack a work permit is unwillingness to pay the bribes required to get one rather than anything underhand going on.

And all this talk of how this crackdown needs to happen because of the uncouth behaviour of Russian tourists or the "Russian mafia" smacks to me of racism. Has there been any mention of any of this kind of behaviour by any of the arrested people? Or of their links to organised crime? So far I have seen nothing more than speculation. I wonder what people's attitudes would be if random farang expats were getting arrested on trumped-up charges, justified by the fact that some Western tourists behave yobbishly, or that some Western expats are involved in organised crime.

Without going into your entire post, there are hundreds if not thousands of teachers who have WP, I personally know of a few who teach at Uni in BKK and all have WP, salary of over 100K per month plus other benefits.

WP does not require that many papers, no more than opening a business bank account.

Why all the uni's where you taught did not arrange WP for you is very strange

[ableguy]

another Witches hunt ..... When Thais will speak Russian they will be able to complain , but Russians dont speak English so 2 choices , you forbid them to come to Thailand and you will see a lot of hotels and places closing down Or you accept the fact that there are people more qualify to take care about those tourists. How many Thais work illegally in foreign country ?

Phuket operated fine before the Russian Mafia moved in and no doubt will do so when they leave which will probably be never as bribes talk and are the only real thing that counts, the rest is hot air,

[bluemoonpattaya]

why don't they all go to Cyprus, apparently there is a lot of russians over there with plenty of money.....................LOL

[maidu]

If they were Chinese, no problem. They'd just lay low and let the Chinese-Thai organizations provide cover. In 3 to 8 years they'd get full Thai citizenship. Awhile later they might be running the country (most of the largest businesses and most politicians are Chinese descent, many of them relatively recently). Then the incessant scraping flat of land parcels, and cramming as many housing units per sq.M would be even more rampant than it is already.

I've had Russians come and partake in my tourist venue here in northernmost Thailand, and all have been fine. It's the environment. If you take people and put 'em in a crime-infested dog-eat-dog environment, then expect those characteristics to show. In contrast, if you take the same people and put 'em in a wholesome, safe and natural environment, you'll see more uplifting characteristics.

[RuskiCat]

Time to wakeup Thailand And not only Phuket !!

WAKE UP THAILAND! They are stealing your jobs. Soon the entire population of Russia will migrate to Thailand and it will be full of surly, rude white people. The elephants on the streets will be replaced with dancing bears, som tam with potatoes and worst of all women will have equal rights!!! Can you imagine the horror of Thailand with no bar girls? No child prostitutes... but don't worry when we replace songsen with vodka at least it will an improvement.

[deesamui]

this topic creates some sparks, I love that ! I hope they check all the h===ers in Papaya and KS, too

Only hookers do not take Thai jobs, because

1. They are not Russian but from Uzbekistan

2. They charge 3-5 times more than Thai.

Just the other day, met one who charges 5000 baht/30 mins, could not stop laughing when i heard her prices

I hear you, brother! laughed myself a couple times I was closed to choke ! btw being " russian " is not only a nationality its also a behavior, just for me

[Briandajew]

You can only look back with hindsight and wish upon a star that General Patton had been allowed to actually march into Moscow and deal with these creatures back in 1945!

[nattydread]

if only the UK had such zeal regarding the protection of employment for British people

[lemoncake]

Time to wakeup Thailand And not only Phuket !!

WAKE UP THAILAND! They are stealing your jobs. Soon the entire population of Russia will migrate to Thailand and it will be full of surly, rude white people. The elephants on the streets will be replaced with dancing bears, som tam with potatoes and worst of all women will have equal rights!!! Can you imagine the horror of Thailand with no bar girls? No child prostitutes... but don't worry when we replace songsen with vodka at least it will an improvement.

Women in Thailand do not have equal rights? and where did you find child prostitution?

I suppose in Russia there is no child prostitution, just lower the legal age

[NamKangMan]

This is good. It's never a good idea to have one ethnic group take over another country. Before the Russians, we had a mix from all over the world. It's getting like Little Russia here in Pattaya too. I want Thailand to remain Thai.

You want "Thailand to remain Thai" - wow, maybe we should all go home.

A Thai visa in a Russian passport is the same as the visa in your passport.

perhaps so.

But I want to walk down the streets and feel like I am in Thailand, not in Russia, based on all the signage....

So, it's fine if all the signage is in English for you, but not in Russian for the Eastern Europeans.

By your logic, all the signage should be in Thai, so you can "feel like you are in Thailand." :)

Also, why not get rid of Australian, German, British, Scandi and American bars, and Italian, Mexican, Japanese etc restaurants - just so Thailand "feels more like Thailand." :)