Bad guy foreigners fall foul of biometrics: Immigration announces another six arrests

Naew Na reported on another press conference at immigration HQ in Bangkok on Wednesday when biometrics was praised for bringing more law breaking foreigners to book.  

Presenting the arrests on this occasion was deputy chief Itthiphon Itthisanronchai. The four separate cases centered on arrests made at Bangkok’s main airport, Suvarnabhumi.  There were a lot of vinyl boards on show despite chief Lt-Gen Sompong “Big Oud” Chingduang not being present on this occasion. 
 Case 1: On 8th October two Chinese people presented passports at check-in with what looked to staff like fake Canadian visas. They were on their way to Toronto. Immigration were called but before they arrived the Chinese people fled the airport in a taxi leaving their passports at check-in.  CCTV allowed the immigration police to trace them to a hotel in the downtown area of Soi Rang Nam near Victory Monument. 

They admitted buying the fake visas on We Chat for 2,000 Yuan (about 10,000 baht) while in China before coming to Thailand.  Case 2: On October 17th a 57 year old man (whose real name and surname immigration don’t know) arrived in Thailand on a South African passport that the biometrics system determined as fake.  The man – confirmed as a South African – said he had been living in Kuwait and lost his passport. Difficulties in getting a new one led him to paying 140,000 baht in Kuwaiti dinars to an agent for a replacement.  Case 3: On October 20th a Chinese looking man was stopped at the Visa on Arrival desk after the biometrics system suggested his passport, issued in Taiwan, was fake. 

He admitted paying a Taiwanese agent 1,000 Yuan (about 5,000 baht) for the fake.  Case 4: An Indian man and wife were stopped trying to leave Suvarnabhumi. Biometrics discovered they had no record of entry into Thailand.  Stamps in their passports supposedly issued in Sungei Kolok (on the Thai Malaysian border) were found to be fake.  The couple said that they had been working illegally as cleaners at a hotel in Malaysia for two years. Their child back home had fallen sick and they decided to leave.  They said that their employer arranged transport and an exit stamp from Malaysia and an entry stamp into Thailand for them.  

Thai Visa /  Naew Na

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