Thai Senior Immigration Officer Vows to Purge the Country of All Overstayers Within Three Months

 

Chaengwattana government complex in #Bangkok

Immigration Bureau commissioner Pol. Lt. Gen. Pakphumpipat Sajjaphan held a seminar on Thursday, July 6th, to equip immigration officers with the necessary skills to effectively address the issue of overstayers. Overstaying is when someone stays past the date of their legal visa without permission from Thai Immigration. Within the next three months, the number of overstayers should be reduced to zero, as they are more likely to engage in criminal activities, which can adversely affect Thailand’s tourism industry, Pol. Lt. Gen. Pakphumpipat said. He added that the immigration bureau would also develop complex investigative strategies to reach this goal of zero by focusing on dismantling networks involved in smuggling foreign individuals into the country. Immigration officers would be deployed regularly to conduct on-site passport checks at places, especially entertainment venues nationwide, and businesses would be required to report the accommodation of foreign individuals to the officers. Thai law allows random checks of foreign nationals to ensure they are legally residing within the Kingdom. It is also the law to have legal identification on one’s person at all times. Pol. Lt. Gen. Pakphumpipat believed that in the future, the database of the Immigration Bureau on foreign people within the Kingdom would be greatly strengthened. This would allow immigration officers and police officers to be able to track foreign individuals whether they were lost or had committed a crime within 1-2 days, he said. The plan will also utilize smart cars which are equipped with advanced camera face recognition technology connected to the Thai Immigration Database constantly scanning faces of pedestrians and bystanders to identify those on overstay. This technology had been utilized successfully in busy tourist areas that also had many problems with overstaying like Phuket and Pattaya. Penalties for overstaying differ based on the period overstayed but often include deportation at the overstayers expense, fines, blacklisting, and detainment at the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok until one is deported.

Source = Pattaya News

Foreigners in Pattaya to get SMS alert before their visa expires

Immigration Police are going to start sending SMS reminders to foreigners in Chonburi province — including everyone’s favorite party city Pattaya — to make sure that they don’t overstay their visa.

Immigration Police Chief Surachate Hakpan said yesterday that the visa notification will first debut in Chonburi, thanks to the large number of foreigners staying there, and he has assigned the provincial immigration police chief Songprode Sirisukha to implement the service. 

The SMS will be sent out 15 days before the visa expiry date in order to prevent tourists and expats from forgetting or “misunderstanding” their length of stay.

One big question, however, remains unanswered. When will this actually kick off?

When contacted by Coconuts this afternoon, an officer at Chonburi Immigration Police, who requested anonymity, said there is no time frame yet set for when the service will be implemented in the province.

The alerts will only be sent to those who have registered their phone numbers when they applied for a visa or an extension.

The text notification is part of the Immigration Police’s project to decrease the number of overstayers to “zero.”

Surachate said that foreigners who do not sort out their visas and intentionally overstay will face “harsh measures,” including being deported and blacklisted anywhere from 5 to 10 years, depending on their cases. 

Source - Coconuts.co 

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