All smiles as immigration chief finds Africans in Chantaburi not breaking the law

[rooster59]

All smiles as immigration chief finds Africans in Chantaburi not breaking the law

 

Image: Thai Rath

 

The head of Thai Immigration led an entourage in a visit to Chantaburi yesterday after reports of there being a lot of Africans living in the area who may be breaking the law.

But Nathathorn Phrosunthorn was pleased to report that the overwhelming majority of the 700-800 Africans living there were all above board and legal.

Many were working legally in the gems business, he said.

The visit was in line with PM Prayut and deputy Prawit's orders to root out illegal activity.

The entourage was made up of immigration police, regular police, representatives from the jewelry business and consular officials from several embassies.

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-05-07

[Thechook]

Comes across as extremely racist, firstly the headline and then the fact police were sent just because they were African and to see if they are breaking any laws.  We have a lot of Thais living in Niddrie, Melbourne Australia, imagine if the police were sent just to check on them.

[gk10002000]

All the tour guidance books and Thai cultural articles say it is very bad to touch a person's head.

[tracker1]

Just love happy endings !

[ratcatcher]

51 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

All the tour guidance books and Thai cultural articles say it is very bad to touch a person's head.

He's not a tourist but a Thai and it's generally considered acceptable to gently touch the head of a child in an affectionate way.  In this case, it's an African boy. 

 

edit to add....

"All smiles as immigration chief finds Africans in Chantaburi not breaking the law"

The inference here is that he was surprised they weren't breaking the law since they were Africans and were working in the gems industry.

 

[darksidedog]

All smiles? Only on the outside. They obviously went there with the intention of making numerous arrests, with the only "evidence" of wrongdoing being that the suspects were African! Deep down they are pissed off that all was legitimate and there is no money to be made. Racism is very clearly alive and well here.

[FarSeas]

1 hour ago, Thechook said:

Comes across as extremely racist, firstly the headline and then the fact police were sent just because they were African and to see if they are breaking any laws.  We have a lot of Thais living in Niddrie, Melbourne Australia, imagine if the police were sent just to check on them.

Welcome to the world of the Australian Muslim minority in Australia. 

[thaipod]

This recently comes from local Thais living there complaining about being over run by the african people living in this small town.There has been locals  on the net about their behavior and the large increase in numbers in the past few years. My wife showed me comments on facebook of complaints of concerned Thais and gem dealers also.

[timkeen08]

He's not a tourist but a Thai and it's generally considered acceptable to gently touch the head of a child in an affectionate way.  In this case, it's an African boy. 
 
edit to add....
"All smiles as immigration chief finds Africans in Chantaburi not breaking the law"
The inference here is that he was surprised they weren't breaking the law since they were Africans and were working in the gems industry.
 

I totally agree with everything you stated but, as an addition I read that the local Gem Association representative was also included in the investigative group and they did talk to local gem dealers. Maybe complaints lead to immigration being used as a tool so the local gem dealers could get rid of compitition based on the assumption that the Africans just had to be all illegals? Maybe this was really about money and not race. I think this would happen even if their problem was with a different race than Africans. Typical SOP in many countries when accommodating the greedy.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[YetAnother]

thais should cleanup their own backyard first

[yellowboat]

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The head of Thai Immigration led an entourage in a visit to Chantaburi yesterday after reports of there being a lot of Africans living in the area who may be breaking the law.

Absolutely not even a whiff of evidence other than they were African, what lovely, thoughtful neighbors and brave officials.  Utterly shameful checking on people because of xenophobia.

[J Smith]

3 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

All the tour guidance books and Thai cultural articles say it is very bad to touch a person's head.

Adult heads, yes, children are a different story though.

[giddyup]

2 hours ago, FarSeas said:

Welcome to the world of the Australian Muslim minority in Australia. 

Difference being there are no Thais fighting for Isis or radical Thais intent on causing carnage and mayhem in Australia.

[giddyup]

People are singled out because of their ethnicity in many countries. Australian immigration conducts raids on Vietnamese market gardens and restaurants because they tend to find a lot of undocumented Vietnamese and Chinese working illegally. Don't see a problem with that.

[BangkokNicky]

I think the guy on right trying not to piss himself with laughing as he try to hold a smile ..

[scorecard]

4 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

All the tour guidance books and Thai cultural articles say it is very bad to touch a person's head.

 

Why were the cops accompanied by people from the jewelry business?

 

Cops and Immigration officials are the only relevant people to decide whether anybody is breaking the law. No other people (especially outside of the aligned officials) should be involved in any way.

 

Taking people from the jewelry business could easily turn nasty, with the jewelry official making comments that were aimed solely at closing them down because they are business competitors or similar.

 

 

[scorecard]

27 minutes ago, G Marks said:

Adult heads, yes, children are a different story though.

 

Actually that's not true.

[geriatrickid]

4 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

All the tour guidance books and Thai cultural articles say it is very bad to touch a person's head.

Ahh but the boy is African, and so it is acceptable. 

[Bluespunk]

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The head of Thai Immigration led an entourage in a visit to Chantaburi yesterday after reports of there being a lot of Africans living in the area who may be breaking the law.

Skin colour a sign of guilt?

 

How refreshing

[geriatrickid]

17 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Difference being there are no Thais fighting for Isis or radical Thais intent on causing carnage and mayhem in Australia.

 

That you are aware of.

 In case you were unaware, there's a whole lot of Thais engaged in a violent deadly insurrection in the  deep south of Thailand. They are followers of a certain religion and it is not Buddhism.

[Bluespunk]

2 minutes ago, geriatrickid said:

 

That you are aware of.

 In case you were unaware, there's a whole lot of Thais engaged in a violent deadly insurrection in the  deep south of Thailand. They are followers of a certain religion and it is not Buddhism.

Faith is not the root cause of the conflict though.

[giddyup]

Just now, geriatrickid said:

 

That you are aware of.

 In case you were unaware, there's a whole lot of Thais engaged in a violent deadly insurrection in the  deep south of Thailand. They are followers of a certain religion and it is not Buddhism.

Give me one example of a Thai being arrested in Australia for being a radical. The Muslim Thais fighting in the south have a beef against Thailand, not Australia.

[mikebell]

Can these black people get work permits for dealing gems?  I thought the whole idea of work permits was to allow no competition with Thais?

[humqdpf]

4 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Why were the cops accompanied by people from the jewelry business?

 

Cops and Immigration officials are the only relevant people to decide whether anybody is breaking the law. No other people (especially outside of the aligned officials) should be involved in any way.

 

Taking people from the jewelry business could easily turn nasty, with the jewelry official making comments that were aimed solely at closing them down because they are business competitors or similar.

 

 

The gem business, Africa, Thailand - when you join up the dots, certain African countries, such as Zimbabwe, have big gem deposits, and the folks who run those countries make a lot of money out of the gem business for themselves.

 

So secret is the business, the gem mining areas are no-go and they do not even share the employment of gem polishing within their own country but immediately send the rough stones out to Asia for working - they don't want it generally known inside their own country finding out how much money is involved.

 

In this example, the Africans will no doubt be in Thailand to carefully audit the progress of the gems and if you ever want to find a place in Thailand where every African will have ALL his/her papers in order, it will be in that business. 

[phycokiller]

its not so much racism, its just what police states do. anything that stands out is a target and if nothing stands out you find a random target

[JHolmesJr]

Forced smiles as it has dashed any hopes for a few backhanders.

[giddyup]

4 minutes ago, phycokiller said:

its not so much racism, its just what police states do. anything that stands out is a target and if nothing stands out you find a random target

and if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

[Fulwell53]

5 hours ago, Thechook said:

Comes across as extremely racist, firstly the headline and then the fact police were sent just because they were African and to see if they are breaking any laws.  We have a lot of Thais living in Niddrie, Melbourne Australia, imagine if the police were sent just to check on them.

Great post

[phycokiller]

41 minutes ago, geriatrickid said:

 

That you are aware of.

 In case you were unaware, there's a whole lot of Thais engaged in a violent deadly insurrection in the  deep south of Thailand. They are followers of a certain religion and it is not Buddhism.

they dont speak thai either, maybe they just want  freedom to practice their own religion and language. they were there first

[Fulwell53]

4 minutes ago, JHolmesJr said:

Forced smiles as it has dashed any hopes for a few backhanders.

Thank god people sitting in armchairs well away from where all this is happening have all the facts at their disposal and can come to rational even handed conclusions