Phuket visa overstayers 'pay B100m a month in bribes'

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buksida
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Phuket visa overstayers 'pay B100m a month in bribes'

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Police are tracking down 142 foreigners said to be paying up to 100 million baht a month in bribes to local police for overstaying their visas in Phuket.

A deputy police commander and a deputy superintendent in Phuket have been transferred to Surat Thani to pave the way for the investigation, Royal Thai Police spokesman Veerachai Songmetta said on Friday.

Deputy national police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul ordered the hunt, saying the foreigners had been arrested for overstaying but their cases had not been forwarded to immigration police for expulsion.

He said the 15 Phuket police officers involved in the arrests were already being investigated for not reporting the arrests to immigration police for follow-up. The 142 foreigners, he added, were not blacklisted but police were checking to see if any of them posed security threats. Police want to know who and where they are and if any have left the country, he said.

Pol Gen Srivara said he had been made aware of complaints earlier that as much as 100 million baht changed hands each month on the tourist island in return for leniency on visa overstaying.

Some local officers had been dismissed in connection with the allegations, he said, adding that he was not aware of similar problems in Chon Buri and Chiang Mai, two other provinces with a lot of foreign tourists.

"I believe that many parties are involved, including the private sector. After the investigation was launched, messages were forwarded through the Line chat application to warn visa-overstaying foreigners to hide as police were about to round them up," Pol Gen Srivara said.

Investigators so far had not found that any police officer had accommodated such foreigners, he said.

Immigration police in Phuket reported that from Tuesday to Thursday they rounded up 95 foreigners staying illegally in the province. They included 62 Indians, 11 Pakistanis and six Egyptians. Seventy had overstayed their visas and the others were illegal immigrants.

Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... ery-racket

I wonder how much is being paid in Hua Hin. :duck:
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Re: Phuket visa overstayers 'pay B100m a month in bribes'

Post by dtaai-maai »

Police are tracking down 142 foreigners said to be paying up to 100 million baht a month in bribes to local police for overstaying their visas in Phuket.
That's an unambiguous statement, but it makes no sense whatsoever. Break it down with a simple calculation and it could be rewritten as "...142 foreigners said to be paying up to 700,000 baht a month each in bribes to local police for overstaying their visas in Phuket". Does nobody double-check these things?
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Re: Phuket visa overstayers 'pay B100m a month in bribes'

Post by HHTel »

Yeh, I got the same answer. Almost 705,000 baht per head per month.

I don't believe it.
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Re: Phuket visa overstayers 'pay B100m a month in bribes'

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Police crackdown targets overstaying foreign criminals
Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan has instructed national security agencies to get tough on foreign criminals and “influential figures” following the discovery that nearly 100,000 foreigners were overstaying their visas in Thailand.

It is feared that some of these people are committing crimes and damaging Thailand’s image. Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Khongcheep Tantrawanich said on Sunday that the government, via national security officers, would continue to enforce the law strictly. This would include the crackdown on influential figures, including foreign criminals, in a bid to narrow the social gap and create safer places for the Thai public.

Following the report on overstayers, Khongcheep quoted Prawit as instructing the military, police and administrative officials to seriously crackdown on transnational criminal network members, especially those who have disguised themselves as tourists.

Prawit also urged the Royal Thai Police to check on incoming and outgoing visitors and implement greater measures to control, monitor and act against those who have overstayed. Prawit also urged officers not to get involved with or seek illegal benefits from these people.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... s/30331420
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