Thai immigration chief warned he might face the chop

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

I guess they never heard of a Sting...

[Acharn]

"The under-the-table fees amount to 1.8 million baht a day and it is not known who have pocketed them."

How hard is it to ask the immigration guys at the counters where it goes, and then follow the trail? It's not too difficult so clearly they just don't want to do it.

I'm pretty sure they know already, but where it goes is to friends of theirs at the Polo Club, so they don't want to embarrass them.

[robblok]

Its all hypocritical, their corruption let the wrong people in and now they want to make it harder for those who obey the rules. Even those who they let in are not all bad but they always seem to shift the blame.

[Time Traveller]

Anyone still want to beleive the thai immigration officers are squeeky clean and never accept bribes??

There have been a few of us saying that they are on the take for years on this forum only to be strangely refuted by the farangs who think they are more-thai-than-thai accusing us of lying ....Even the PM can see the corruption in the immigration department.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Time Traveller

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

Wow! No more corruption entering and exiting. Looks like the queue will be long unless your Thai.

[kiwikeith]

Bombers, Bribed their way in and out, visa fees are a good bussines so the reward money for ther BK Bombers could rise by 1.8 million a day .

Thes guys have committed criminal acts and all they get is an inactive posting, very sorry but it's Somnumnah to police as they bring criticism on themselves.

They have become an international laughing stock because of the KT case and paying themselves rewards for catching the BK bombers.

Bet the Cambodians are furious or maybe they got some of the 1.8 million a day and are happy to remain silent.

[slipperylobster]

Some people have come here because corruption worked for them. Front of line, bribing police for infractions instead of court, bypassing red tape, overstaying, having others deliver your passport for stamping at the border....all done before with a shirk and a grin.

Getting tough on these guys....now. Wonder how many will stay without the perks.

Edited September 9, 2015 by slipperylobster

[jaywalker]

Give him the CHOP of all chops & feed it to the ducks.

[oneday]

...and I'm sure all the men under the national police chief are clean as a whistle...no problems here.

[speedtripler]

Instead of threatening this guy it would be more effective if the "culture" of inactive posts was removed and replaced with the sack and loss of pension rights for anyone found "misbehaving".

That threat will provide a lot of thought amongst the troops............

+jail and confiscation of all assets..

[Konini]

Small fry in comparison (but huge fry by volume considering how many people use are involved every single day) is that practice which I've always found very odd when crossing by land at Hat Yai to or from Malaysia. I've always refused to pay and been bemused by the locals and tourists alike who are told to put 1 MR or 100 baht (depending on your direction of travel) into their passports when they hand them over to Thai immigration by the coach or minivan drivers. Even those who I know personally to be usually law abiding Malaysians don't so much as question it, and when I have asked some of them about it they've shrugged, said it's only one ringgit and that it has to be paid or you won't get in or you'll have problems. As I say, I've always declined and have never been denied passage through the border. (It's not quite so straight forward if you refuse to give the Cambodian immigration folks money, but we never have, never will and have always got through, albeit after having a bit of a delay at times).

If people are going to complain here or anywhere else, I hope at the very least that they are actively refusing to make undocumented payments. It really isn't hard, just a bit inconvenient at times.

There again, it's only a dollar. Or two. Or whatever other figure you happen to draw the line at, isn't it?

[Kannikapor88]

The scope of corruption within the Immigration Dept is mind blowing ....an example.

Last Monday I was to pick up my residency letter from opp Promenda which I had paid 500 baht for (with no receipt of course ) the previous Friday.

At 12.50pm, window 2 for pick ups, opened early so up I fronted ,gave the guy, who has been with Imm a long time, my ticket and he grabbed a pile of completed letters

I counted them as he went through going right past mine,I could see my photo, and in total there were 31 letters.

Second time through he found it and handed it to me with a smile "No receipt I asked ? No he replied with a smile

Do the maths 31 x 500 baht =15,500 baht in just one average day for a service if you like to wait 30 days is free.

We got a Cert. last year but refused to pay bribe so had to wait 30 days - when we picked it up the corrupt Officer told us that we would not get anymore Cert. from them ... Wife reported him to 1111 and will continue to report him until we dont see him there anymore

[razer]

Talk the talk ... walk the walk ... In other words, anybody can talk about it but it has no meaning unless they act upon their words.

[fred Kubasa]

He should have been, not warned, but fired 10 years ago.

[DavidB4]

"The under-the-table fees amount to 1.8 million baht a day and it is not known who have pocketed them."

How hard is it to ask the immigration guys at the counters where it goes, and then follow the trail? It's not too difficult so clearly they just don't want to do it.

Because they don't want to know where it's been going, just where it's supposed to go from now on = to the Chief!

[robertson468]

Somyot needs to be careful about the skeletons in his own closet while warning people. for whose performance he is ultimately responsible, that they must do better.

And he has a goodly number of skeletons does Somyot.

How do you know?

[speedtripler]

Somyot needs to be careful about the skeletons in his own closet while warning people. for whose performance he is ultimately responsible, that they must do better.

And he has a goodly number of skeletons does Somyot.

How do you know?

He is widely known to be extremely wealthy

He put his own money up for the initial bomb Reward too

Prayut should have him be audited before he gets his retirement package....

[farangmick]

I said elsewhere that immigration in Thailand is utterly bent for a fee.

This might be the start of reforming it, and who knows, it might improve the situation.

I think you are on to some thing with the idea of the start to reform it. What other reason would they come out and publically announce that it is going on and heads will roll if not

stemmed. If They had no intention of doing any thing about it they would not have said any

thing.

Let us hope with the upcoming ASEAN or what ever it is called it might be a big advantage

to them to get rid of as much corruption as they can. There will still be corruption the

same as any country in the world but it will be a lot less.

No. Done properly you have an undercover investigation, if you can find enough straight investigators. Gather sufficient evidence for prosecutions, then have a few dawn raids. You do not say "Ok lads, you've made your pile same as me, now ease off a bit."

[Dogmatix]

Immigration at CW started charging new PRs an 'express fee' of 5,000 just to issue their residence book as required by law. That was after they were made to wait 5 years or more and paid official fees of around 185,000.

I wonder what is waiting for to fire the b*gger, if he has all this evidence.

[Arkady]

I said elsewhere that immigration in Thailand is utterly bent for a fee.

This might be the start of reforming it, and who knows, it might improve the situation.

Could be a lot of hot air too, just threatening them maybe wanting a higher cut.

When bombers have bribed their way in, it's a pretty serious issue I reckon.

Probably what triggered off the outburst. But he must have known about most of these abuses for a long time. It is a pretty long list.

[Billy The Kid]

No wonder why many Thai police are millionaires , everyone is taking their turns taking 1.8 million bt .

[davehowden]

Is that "chop" as in vasectomy or does he mean fired?

[Truth4All]

Bla, bla, bla....more useless talk and no action. Corrupt people and useless people should not be given any warning about what is 'supposedly' going to happen to them. There should be a purge, as the Chinese do it and the suspects should be locked up with immediate effect until enquiry's are completed and trials can begin.

Still; as the dear General has just said today......'' we should not be too hard on them ''. The obvious question is......WHY ?

You ask WHY?? Because they are ALL CORRUPT and they sure wouldn't want someone to be hard with them!!!!!

[Konini]

You ask WHY?? Because they are ALL CORRUPT and they sure wouldn't want someone to be hard with them!!!!!

No, no and no. I have to comment here. A lot of them may very well be corrupt, but I will never believe that ALL of them are. There are still good people out there, and there are a lot more good than bad.

[speedtripler]

You ask WHY?? Because they are ALL CORRUPT and they sure wouldn't want someone to be hard with them!!!!!

No, no and no. I have to comment here. A lot of them may very well be corrupt, but I will never believe that ALL of them are. There are still good people out there, and there are a lot more good than bad.

I do believe it's impossible to get police promotions without buying your way up, and if it costs half a million or whatever... They're going to have to be involved in the skimming to make back that 500k because saving your wages just wont cut it

[NCC1701A]

I wonder what my 90 day reporting will be like next time?

[ozyjon]

I don't believe it,

[Konini]

You ask WHY?? Because they are ALL CORRUPT and they sure wouldn't want someone to be hard with them!!!!!

No, no and no. I have to comment here. A lot of them may very well be corrupt, but I will never believe that ALL of them are. There are still good people out there, and there are a lot more good than bad.

I do believe it's impossible to get police promotions without buying your way up, and if it costs half a million or whatever... They're going to have to be involved in the skimming to make back that 500k because saving your wages just wont cut it

Yes, I've heard that too and it may be true, if it is it's very sad as it will prevent a lot of entry level people with integrity gaining rank, but not all of the foot soldiers go for promotion, so at the very least not all of the foot soldiers are corrupt. The higher up the chain you go, it is quite within sensible reasoning that there will be a higher percentage, but the ones we deal with on a day to day basis, certainly not.

[davehowden]

It all starts at the TOP, read that as you wish.

[Jon Wetherall]

It all starts at the TOP, read that as you wish.

It certainly does and always has done.