Immigration crackdown: Thousands of foreigners charged for illegally entering Thailand

[Thunderbirds20]

All the bad Russians come here because Thailand makes it easy for Russians to come here. Every other country, except turkey requires Russians to have a visa, .. maybe now you can start to understand why

[NoshowJones]

9,000!!!

Jesus.

One has to ask how 9,000 were allowed to enter illegally in the first place.

Clearly Immigration has no idea what the hell is going on.

They must have been getting lessons from the UK.

[flyingdoc]

Incredible !

[ToddinChonburi]

THE UNFORGIVEN !!!!!!

[torpedo1970]

Something sounds fishy/wrong about this story....over 9000 over one week which was this week. And the crackdown ended today but they are also reporting numbers today...seems like the earliest the final reporting would occur is tomorrow/Monday. Plus it seems like if this many people were getting arrested over such a short period we would have heard about it before now.

smoke and mirrors

it is most likely over stayers

[marinediscoking]

Last Thursday I witnessed the largest immigration bust I have ever seen since moving to Pattaya over a decade ago, so there is some truth to this story. At about 1pm they surrounded the "made in thailand" complex, I saw at least 20 immigration officers and several full pick up trucks of captured migrants. I saw a few white males in the trucks as well but I have no idea what nationality they were. Most seemed to look like the Burmese/Nepalese decent. Who came originally from Nepal but settled in western Burma some 50 years ago. Most of the touts working in front of the tailor shops are of this decent as well as working in the tshirt/suveneer shops now.

[webfact]

Thousands Arrested as Visa Overstay Bans go for PM’s Endorsement
By Sasiwan Mokkhasen
Staff Reporter


Wearing shirts that say 'detainee,' foreign nationals accused of being in the country illegally were displayed Sunday at the immigration police headquarters in Bangkok.

BANGKOK — Harsher punishments introduced last year for foreigners who overstay their visas might be strengthened by the prime minister’s pen as immigration police announced more than 9,000 people were arrested during the past week.

Aiming to reduce illegal immigration by 80 percent, immigration officials have asked Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha to use his special power granted after the 2014 coup to reaffirm rules introduced last year banning foreigners from Thailand for one to 10 years, depending on the length of overstay.

“The current punishment for overstaying is a 500-baht fine, the maximum is a 20,000-baht fine and sending them back to their countries,” said Immigration chief, police Lt. Gen. Nathathorn Prousoontorn. “So the next day, they can just travel back here as we don’t have a blacklist system like other countries.”

The rules have already won approval from the Interior Minister and have been submitted to Prayuth to consider.

Authorities on Sunday also revealed they arrested 9,265 people suspected of being in the country illegally during a seven-day operation which ended Sunday. Police said they want to reduce the estimated 800,000 people in Thailand illegally by 80 percent.

Almost all – nearly 98 percent – of those arrested face charges under the 1979 Immigration Act, police said, with 18 others facing other criminal charges and 209 accused of other offenses.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1445842636


-- Khaosod English 2015-10-26

[mikemac]

firstly i do not live in pattaya ,but i have been a few times ,and not everyone there is a drunk or a sex tourist ,bank robber etc. so why keep harping on about it ,does it make up for the fact your skint and living in the boonies with the love of your life who you met in a bank or charity diner at the dusit

what a load of crap , let he who is innocent throw the first stone ,nearly every one who posts on thai visa is married to a hi so well there's not a chance a so called hi so would be marrying a farang ,

I wouldn't say that every one is married or even married to a Hi so that contributes on TV, however I've got ta duck out and take the kids to private collage school in the Pink Bentley , bye.

A pink Bentley - what impeccable Hi So taste sir!

................"however I've got ta duck out and take the kids to private collage school"...................

I hope for his sake he did not attend the same "private collage school" because if he did he was ripped off.

[Jonmarleesco]

'Police said of the 9,265 foreigners napped ...' Napped? No wonder they were caught.

[OMGImInPattaya]

Nice picture in today's Bangkok newspaper...some supposedly over-staying farang creatures being guarded by jack-booted police SWAT types, because they definitely look like a menace to Thais and a threat to Thai national security. It was also nice for the fuzz to put them all in t-shirts probably saying something in Thai script like "I'm a lawbreaking foreigner who is lower than pond scum."

[Dogmatix]

9,000!!!

Jesus.

One has to ask how 9,000 were allowed to enter illegally in the first place.

Clearly Immigration has no idea what the hell is going on.

It was recently revealed that for only B18,000 Immigration is happy to admit terrorists on obviously fake passports to blown Thais and foreigners to smithereens. The previous police chief admitted that he was fully aware of the extent if corruption at Immigration, since he worked there himself, and yet never attempted to do anything about it until his last few days in the service. The current crack down will pass and it will be back to corruption as usual with all kinds of criminals and terrorists welcome for a fee.

[h90]

Last Thursday I witnessed the largest immigration bust I have ever seen since moving to Pattaya over a decade ago, so there is some truth to this story. At about 1pm they surrounded the "made in thailand" complex, I saw at least 20 immigration officers and several full pick up trucks of captured migrants. I saw a few white males in the trucks as well but I have no idea what nationality they were. Most seemed to look like the Burmese/Nepalese decent. Who came originally from Nepal but settled in western Burma some 50 years ago. Most of the touts working in front of the tailor shops are of this decent as well as working in the tshirt/suveneer shops now.

Well done.....

[Tchooptip]

Burmese, Cambodians, Lao, Vietnamese?

Like those ones?

Edited October 26, 2015 by Tchooptip

[cape]

Another desirable place to be, same sized pipeline, but non porous borders as it's an island...estimate of illegals is half a million to four times that:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/601419/Britain-net-migration-figures-illegal-immigrants

9,000 is probably less than the number entering illegally in that same week.

In any case, yesterday'so illegal is tomorrow's free movement: think ASEAN.

[cape]

Another desirable place to be, same sized population, but non porous borders as it's an island...estimate of illegals is half a million to four times that:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/601419/Britain-net-migration-figures-illegal-immigrants

9,000 is probably less than the number entering illegally in that same week.

In any case, yesterday'so illegal is tomorrow's free movement: think ASEAN.

[condobrit001]

9000? More like 90 I would think. More BS.

[Lampang2]

T-shirt translated

Person must be kept at immigration.

ผู้ = person

ต้อง = must

กัก = be kept / stopped

สตม. = short for immigration

สำนักงานตรวจคนเข้าเมือง

[kjhbigv]

9000!!!???

How many BIB did it take to do that? I seriously doubt this number is correct and something has been lost in translation!

900....possibly, but 9000????

Where are they being held for starters?

[Lampang2]

9000!!!???

How many BIB did it take to do that? I seriously doubt this number is correct and something has been lost in translation!

900....possibly, but 9000????

Where are they being held for starters?

Maybe they do 8500 on a normal week.

They have a mechanism for this already, it was not the first week ever they took in overstayers / illegal immigrants.

I see nothing strange in those numbers at all.

[cmiuc]

they caught'em by checking their wet backs...

So Pattaya must have a lot of wetbacks.

Edited October 26, 2015 by cmiuc

[cmiuc]

i wonder if it included those foreigners who 'white out' their original expiration date on their visa and wrote or typed in a new date of their liking?

(at one school i was shown that one teacher did this)

[kkup]

He seems to be heavily focused on cracking down on non Thai nationals / tourists with allot of stuff lately. But not doing much about the problems from within the country. How about creating more job opportunities, helping farmers, educating drivers, education and health incentives, the list goes on..

[kiwikeith]

Article is a bit vauge and does not mention where they arrested the bulk of them.

However the Sungai golok border is well known for people just walking over for a night in town.

Maybe the bulk were in the south, we will have to wait for a better report.

[diehard60]

This is good. Get rid of the trash. You want to stay here in Thailand ??? DO IT LEGALLY or get out.

[surfinglife]

Was it just dark inside or were there no farangs amongst the detainees?

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

Burmese, Cambodians, Lao, Vietnamese?

Like those ones?

visaoverstay002.jpeg

If this keeps up the Lumpini BIB will have to find new revenue streams.

[stevo52]

> In the greatest days of the British Empire , a new Colonel was sent to
> a jungle outpost to relieve the retiring colonel.
>
> After welcoming his replacement and showing the courtesies (gin and
> tonic, cucumber sandwiches) that protocol decrees, the retiring
> colonel said - "You must meet Captain Smithers, my right-hand man,
> God, he's really the strength of this office. His talent is simply boundless."
>
> Smithers was summoned and introduced to the new CO, who was surprised
> to meet a toothless, hairless, scabbed and pockmarked specimen of
> humanity, a particularly unattractive man less than three foot tall.
>
> "Smithers, old man, tell your new CO about yourself."
>
> "Well, sir, I graduated with honours from Sandhurst , joined the
> regiment and won the Military Cross and Bar after three expeditions
> behind enemy lines.
> I've represented Great Britain in equestrian events and won a Silver
> Medal in the middleweight division of the Olympics.
> I have researched the history of ...."
>
> Here the colonel interrupted, "Yes, yes, never mind that Smithers, the
> new Colonel can find all that in your file.
> Tell him about the day you told the witch doctor to get <deleted>-------ed."

TIME FOR A JOKE

[optad]

Forget the anomalies in the reporting. What is happening is that the Thai's are waking up to a massive problem. They do not know who is in their country, have very few controls to collect or process illegal aliens once here and that many illegals are nefarious of character and intent and have few options here or back home.

Read: they do not really contribute to whatever society they are in.

It is a situation that has developed for wont of tourist dollars and cheap labor. Poor immigration enttry conditions and porous borders and little big picture thinking got them to this situation. Unfortunately the Thais have never evaluated the opportunity cost entertaining these people for years domestically. Pay no tax, generate little in consumption enterprise, most are by large parasitic. And determining if they are overstay is difficult once integrated. Big problem.

[IamNoone88]

............have asked Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha to use his special power........

He has a magic wand?

[surfinglife]

No qualms about racial profiling, full marks to the Immigration cops:)