New drive to expel foreign undesirables from Thailand

New drive to expel foreign undesirables

IMMIGRATION VOWS END TO SAFE HAVEN

The Immigration Bureau has launched a campaign to drive out hundreds of foreign criminals living in Thailand.

Bureau commissioner Wuthi Liptapallop said Thailand was known worldwide as a haven for criminals because of its relatively easy-going visa policies.

http://www.bangkokpo...gn-undesirables

Or just those foreign criminals living in Thailand who can no longer afford to buy off the police

This post has been edited by Stocky: 21 February 2010 - 07:24 PM

Wonder if they'll give the bums's rush to Thailands top gangster.
Not much chance of that.
This is a bloke regarded as the self styled king of Hua Hin. He's got Gov. officials and most of the B in B on the payroll. In fact most of the higher ranking cops are his Thai wife's relatives.
He has prime land with golf courses, where he builds luxury homes.
His house just outside H H is bigger than the Kings palace and he has a gang of enforcers to sort his protection/ drugs jobs out.
He has a string of lux. cars, Bentley/Porsche/Ferrari/Lambo.
Only came into the news recently after one of his home customers started complaining. The Mrs sent a couple of hitmen to sort it, but they botched the job. Held by the cops, then vanished.

So who is this paragon of virtue.
Russian/Bulgarian/German....Nah, he's English.
Ex bank robber, drug dealer, protection racketeer etc, Darren Oxley skipped from jail in the UK, nine years ago and has been in the LOS ever since.

So will they 'get him' this time.
Probably not.
Not when it turns out the Brit Embassy has recently issued him a new passport..

camerata, on 21 February 2010 - 02:34 PM, said:

'relatively easy-going visa policies' -

Thai immigation policy is not much different from many other countries worldwide..

You have no money - move on...nobody needs you.

You have money - welcome! Any question about why you have so much money? Well, not really important...

I do not expect much change in future, basically the same. Criminals are everywhere.

http://www.mirror.co...15875-22024329/

Story is there, link above...

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In this case I think, UK is to blame and not Thailand.

Ridding Thailand of foreign criminals

There's a new broom at the Immigration Bureau, and he's determined to help clean up the country with help from the three S's

A compact man with an impressive CV, the new head of the Immigration Bureau, Wuthi Liptapallop, has set himself a tall order. Central to the three S's campaign he has established for the bureau is "security" - which means dealing with illegal aliens and flushing out foreign criminals who use the country as a haven.

[...]

But there were be no let up on the requirement for all foreigners to carry their passport with them all times, he said. "This is for identification purposes. It is a law. Every Thai national must carry their ID card with them at all times, so why should foreigners be exempt? To carry a copy is not acceptable because it is impossible to see whether it is counterfeit or altered. Carrying a passport is not something we thought up in Thailand, but a normal regulation in many countries. I have been to many countries and carried my passport with me all the time."

http://www.bangkokpo...reign-criminals

I mentioned in an early post that I rarely carried my passport around, thinking a driving licence would suffice if stopped by the B in B.
I was stopped, on a rare occaision without the Mrs, at a traffic checkpoint. Not by the cops, but Air Force police at the entrance to the Base perimiter road, next to Don Maung.
Done the trip several times, takes you across to other side of airport, instead of going the long way around.
This time I didn't know the windscreen sticker was just out of date. They asked to see my passport. I showed my English and Thai licence.
Actually those guys were quite friendly and let me through, reminding me to renew the sticker badge.
These days I never leave home without my passport.

skydiver777, on 23 February 2010 - 01:42 PM, said:

I do this also while in Thailand, but we keep copies of our passports and copies of the pages of the Thai visa/entrance stamp and Thai entry form in our home, in case our passports are missing or stolen. In case something happens, this might be helpful for embassies and immigration to issue some replacement quickly.

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It seems he is more worried about illegal immigrants from Myanmar or Cambodia etc., not really mentioning Western tourists. He mentions also Asian criminal organizations, Yakuza from Japan.

I tend to agree that the Thais are more worried about illegals drifting across the overland borders than anything. If Khun Wuthi thinks that millions of foreign tourists are going to carry their passports with them at all times, he's dreaming. If the BiB start stopping and fining tourists on the street for not carrying their passports, then it will drive another nail into the tourist industry's coffin, whatever the law says. To be honest though, I simply don't see it happening, we have heard all this before...

camerata, on 23 February 2010 - 01:01 PM, said:

He is not wrong to say that.

This is also the rule in Japan, you must carry your passport with you all the time as a foreign national.

If you stay for long-term however (and this is different from Thailand), you will receive from the Japanese ward-office, where your address is registered, the 'Alien Registration Certificate' (free of charge) - a small card, which will replace the passport, it contains all data regarding your status - passport/visa/address/signature etc.

Tourists if they stay long-term (for example family visit by parents etc. they might stay up to 180 days max. (2 x 3 months, visa exemption for many Western countries, no need to leave Japan after 3 months) may apply for the Alien Registration Card, as they have an address, which is not a hotel.

You have to carry your ID (passport or Alien Registration Certificate) with you all the time while in a public area, and sometimes Japanese police stops me and is asking for it. They come just out of nothing and stop you, when leaving a railway station, or walking in a park... etc..

Similar to Thailand, Western visitors from the US/EU are not a concern in Japan however, but there are plenty of illegals from China, Korea, Philippines -the majority of illegals is from Asian countries.

yohan, on 23 February 2010 - 03:45 PM, said:

Yes, I wish Thailand would do this. As it is, a permanent resident has an Alien's Book, which theoretically is the same as a Thai ID card (it contains no English - not even your name), and a Residence Certificate book. Many places in Thailand act like they've never seen an Alien's Book before and some hotels reject them because their registration forms for foreigners are in English. So you really have to carry both. The Aliens Book is bigger, heavier and more fragile than a passport. It doesn't contain your citizen's number from your tabien baan (which is on your driving licence). Your passport doesn't contain any visa (the Residence Certificate acts as a visa when you go in/out of the country). It's the clumsiest system you can imagine. You MUST take your passport with re-entry permit plus Residence Certificate with endorsement when you leave the country. To be safe in all situations in Thailand, you need your passport, alien's book, and ideally driving licence.

Cam - that's hilarious, I had never considered that as a Thai PR you might have to carry more documents than a "foreigner"! Still waiting for my Singapore PR to come through, but then you get a handy plastic credit card thing complete with photo and thumb print!

For long term residents in Thailand, comes back to the old "risks & rewards" argument - do you consider the risks of damage to or loss of your passport (and Aliens Book it appears) by carting it around with you greater than the risks of a run in with the BiB if you don't have it on you? Personally, I only carry my Thai driving license unless I am going somewhere where I judge there might be an increased risk of the police showing up, and then I will take my passport.

All that said, I have never been asked for my passport by the police, even when I have been pulled over in the car and asked for a "contribution"!

Tourists just aren't going to carry their passports around at all times though, whatever the law says. Period.

CC

camerata, on 23 February 2010 - 04:55 PM, said:

I think, Thailand's system is still backwarded regarding electronic registration, and authorities are not really linked to each other like it is here in Japan.

When I travel overseas as a Japanese permanent resident or coming back to Japan, I do not need even an immigration inspector anymore, I am using the 'automatic gate' - I put my passport into the scanner, and same with my fingers, the machine takes my picture. Finished. No stamp in the passport anymore.

The Japanese Alien Registration Card is really a good thing, it is in both, Japanese and English and very complicated printed, like a bill, and for the Japanese permanent resident, it is clearly marked 'as resident, unlimited period of time'. Your signature and picture is also sealed in this card, same size as a credit-card.

I am surprised sometimes, how many ordinary Japanese people - even outside of the major cities - know about this Alien Registration Card and about the rights of a 'Japanese permanent resident' - you might open a banking account, register a phone-line, rent an apartment, sign up in an university as a student, buy your own house AND LAND, any job possible (as labour permit is included), you might ask for medical help in any public hospital (as social insurance is covered same as for Japanese), and nobody will ask you for a passport or will tell you 'it's for Japanese only'.

It's really almost like 'citizenship'. Very convenient.

In Thailand an easy-going registration system for foreigners living long-term in that country will still take many years from now on - this is a developing country - and this will not change soon ....

Only use driver's license - good enough at the end of the day. Emailed myself scanned passport. We can have a look at it on the computer. Not worth walking with it - easily damaged with heat/humidity for starters.

All this is new to me; I just carry a Thai driver's license. It's my understanding that the police here would be less likely to even give a foreigner a ticket to avoid the language issues but I've never been pulled over to test that. I've heard the stories about people being pulled over without any actual violation by police fishing for a pay-off but I can't imagine what you would have to do seem out of place in terms of an actual traffic violation. My wife is all the time making illegal turns from the wrong lanes, sometimes right in front of the police, but that's normal here. She is aware that it's a numbers game and eventually she will have to try and fast-talk her way out of it (or pay up) but it's become too much a matter of habit to drive legally, and plus it's too slow.

You have to look at the reasons why you might be asked for your ID. For motoring offences, a driving licence will do. For cops looking to make some money, nothing but an original passport or (preferably) tea money will do. But for the latter they generally pick on motorcyclists, taxi/tuk-tuk drivers, van drivers and taxi passengers late at night. You're pretty safe in a private car.

If you are stopped in a crackdown by Immigration Police - generally this would be in a cheap guesthouse area - you'll need passport and current visa.

In Bangkok I carry driver's licence (which in my case has my tabien baan number on it), copy of passport front page and copy of alien's book first page, reduced to credit card size and laminated. So it all fits in my wallet. If I was actually detained for not having a passport I'd have to call the gf and have her bring it to the police station.

Upcountry I always take the passport and Alien's Book. The passport is mainly because many hotels won't take anything else. The Alien's Book is because that is what an upcountry cop could understand. If the worst comes to the worst, you don't want to be in a lockup until someone brings your passport from Bangkok to Nakhon Nowhere.

yohan, on 23 February 2010 - 08:27 PM, said:

Another luxury we don't have in Thailand. With PR, when we go overseas we need a re-entry permit and an endorsement (cost 5,900 baht for multiple entry) which last only one year. If you overshoot the one-year expiry by even one day, your PR is void and you have to apply again from scratch. God knows what happens if you lose your Residence Certificate while overseas. I know that if the Immigration officer forgets to stamp it when you return, YOU get fined 1,000 baht.

The Aliens books were obviously printed in one huge (cheap) lot decades ago. They fall apart easily, they are entirely handwritten and all in Thai. Your Thai citizen's number from the tabien baan is not in there. The only link to your real persona is your passport number and nationality. Name is transliterated into Thai script, spelled at the whim of Immigration officials.

Perhaps now that Thai ID cards, driving licences and tabien baans are all computerized, they will think about doing the same for PR holders. I'm not holding my breath, though. They make a lot of money from the re-entry permits and a little on the Alien's Book renewals.

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to quote from "The castle"... "tell him he's dreamin'"

skydiver777, on 22 February 2010 - 12:09 PM, said:

Everyone needs a hobbie .