Thailand - EDITORIAL: Tracking you down... for safety!

Thai Immigration Pattaya / Chonburi

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The new immigration form mandating foreign nationals disclose various personal details is intrusive, much like distrusting parents tracking their children’s smart-phones. Not only do authorities appear to lack subtlety and a clear understanding of how technology works, they also seem to lack the capacity to safely manage and protect the extensive data they are collecting.

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 Thai Immigration Chiang Mai

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 At best, they can hope to better “track down” foreigners when problems arise. Though such a move should surprise no one in this age of mass surveillance, perhaps what is hard to swallow for many foreign residents is the utter lack of subtlety – the perception that officials view all foreigners as potential criminals, and possible scapegoats in any legal unpleasantness that might arise.

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 Bank account numbers will not give authorities access to your money. Knowing what websites you visit and where you hang out sounds more like an awkward first-date script.

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 Thai Immigration Bangkok

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 Your licence plate numbers should already be easily accessible for any functioning bureaucracy.
Your social media details are already on the internet – if you were worried about privacy, you should have read the fine print and never signed up to disclose your personal content on the internet in the first place.
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At worst, the form may invoke fear amongst some alien denizens, who may or may not be deterred from committing any nefarious deeds for fear of being traced. Not exactly the most scientifically proven method of crime-prevention, but fairly standard for authoritarian states throughout time. Human Rights Watch also thinks the form “risks alienating foreign investors and tourists who play a major role in the Thai economy”... which is the standard response to xenophobic polices worldwide.

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 Thai Immigration Phuket

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What is not pointed out is that xenophobia is the foundation of all immigration policies that exist today, worldwide, and foreign investors already absorb it into their cost-benefit analysis. And as Thailand makes a rather endearing effort to catch up with the modern surveillance states, lives will
not change, nor will they be destroyed any more than usual.

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Source:  thephuketnews.com/
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Thailand: ‘Intrusive’ immigration form now mandatory for foreigners

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IF you are planning to visit Thailand’s resort province of Phuket, you will now be required to furnish a host of personal information, including banking account and social media details to the nation’s Immigration bureau.

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Otherwise, failure to submit applications when entering the province will result in consequences, a Immigration official has warned.

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Immigration Bureau’s crime suppression unit Deputy Commissioner Maj Gen Chachaval Vachirapaneegul said the details to be filled in the “Foreign National Information Form”, released last Monday, was now a mandatory requirement.

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“If a foreigner doesn’t want to fill in their information by themselves, they will be questioned for our records anyway. If they don’t fill in the form, we will suspect their reason,” Chachaval was quoted as saying in Phuket News.

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SEE ALSO: Thailand asking foreigners for bank account, social media, and hangout details

Apart from social media and account details, the three-page form asks for foreigners’ contact numbers and email addresses, vehicle registration, and places frequented by the foreigner.

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In the form, visitors were warned that: “Providing false information to an officer, shall be punishable under the Penal Code.”

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According to the paper, the form covers most types of applications for foreigners.

“This form shall be used for making record of information of every alien entering and staying in the Kingdom of Thailand and shall be submit with Notification of residences for Aliens (section 37, 38 of Immigration Act, BE, 2522), or 90-days notification, or Extension of Stays (all purposes), or Re-entry Permits, or in all cases involving alien labors,” the header reads.

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SEE ALSO: Thailand: Foreigners vexed by ‘intrusive’ immigration forms

However, Chachaval did not confirm whether failure to provide certain information would form a basis for applications to be rejected and clarified that the social media account details was optional. He said all other sections were mandatory.

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“We will not force people to provide their social media details,” he said.
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Source: Asiancorrespondent.com/

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