Crackdown on “Non-Ed” visas – don’t turn up for class more than three times and face expulsion

Crime buster Big Joke has turned his attention to foreigners abusing study or “non-ed” visas.

Pol Maj Gen Surachet Hakpal, announcing a swathe of arrests, said that immigration is working closely with educational establishments.

They are rooting out foreigners staying on study visas and then committing crime in Thailand.

Surachet said that a cap on non-attendance at classes is being made at three times. If an absence from a course is not explained then that person will lose their student status and face expulsion from Thailand.

So far in March four people fell into that category, reported Thai Rath.

In the latest crackdown – X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner #5 – Surachet said a joint operation with 191 special branch, immigration, Phayathai police station in Bangkok and several other agencies had resulted in arrests at 108 locations.

Forty nine of these were educational establishments and 59 private homes.

Surachet – known as Big Joke in the Thai media – has been the front man for a series of crime busts and was in Dubai earlier in the week arresting call center gangs in cooperation with the UAE police.

He said 123 arrests were made in the latest sweep that involved foreigners committing crime related to credit cards, romance scams, fake cards, fake diamonds and drugs.

Seventeen people were arrested on overstay comprised of 9 Indians, 2 Pakistanis, 2 Cambodians and one each from Myanmar, China, Kenya and Egypt.

Yoo Guang,48, a Chinese national, had been staying illegally in Chiang Rai for 12 years. Also named were Chonburi residents Komon Dheep, 24, (3 years overstay) and Mandeep Singh, 27 (2 years). Virenda Vadev, 35, was on two years overstay in Bangkok. The last three mentioned were all Indian nationals.

A total of 91 arrests were made yesterday for illegal entry comprising 62 people from Myanmar, 14 Laotians, 4 Cambodians, 3 Vietnamese, 3 Indian, 3 Pakistanis and one each from Belgium and Australia.

Fifteen others were arrested – 5 Vietnamese, 3 from Myanmar, 2 Indians, 2 British, 2 Thai and 1 French.

In the five sweeps to date there have been 490 arrests.

Thai Visa / Thai Rath

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