Big Joke demands only 30 seconds per person at immigration checkpoints

New immigration chief Maj Gen Surachate Hakparn has demanded that slow immigration staff speed up their act.

The man known as Big Joke has promised improved, faster and satisfactory service in the future.

This comes after he sent his deputy to the Sadao border with Malaysia.

Earlier the chief at Satun and several underlings were transferred after severe delays there during the holiday weekend.

Things were reportedly bad too at Sadao that is Thailand’s largest land crossing. It has 5000 to 8000 people crossing on a normal day and up to 15,000 on holidays.

People were waiting for hours to cross at the weekend.

Surachate or Big Joke dispatched his deputy Maj-Gen Itthiphon Itthisannachai to investigate in the far south.

Itthiphon said that his chief’s policy was to provide a fast and improved service to tourists with no back-handers.

And he had ordered that immigration staff take just 30 seconds to process each visitor.

Thaivisa notes that previous immigration chiefs seemed happy if their staff managed to process a visitor in 45 seconds.

Thai Visa / Thai Rath

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