Crackdown on illegal teachers: Police target international schools in "X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner" campaign

[webfact]

Crackdown on illegal teachers: Police target international schools in "X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner" campaign

 

Picture: Thai Rath

 

Thai Rath reported that crime buster Surachet Hakpal was targeting international schools that knowingly aid and abet illegal teachers on their staff.

 

Surachet - the deputy commissioner for the tourist police - mentioned that some illegals were even teaching language classes at kindergartens in Chonburi.

 

He said that schools where illegals and over-stayers were found would be investigated to see if school officials had helped them.

 

The top cop - called Big Joke in the Thai media - was at a press conference at the Ratchada Rot Fai market where police announced raids on 144 places nationwide targeting mostly the dark skinned community.

 

Most of those arrested were Nigerians, Cameroonians and Romanians. Forty one of these were in Bangkok and were presented for the press as drugs tests found three positive. Some 25 were charged with illegal entry and 16 were on overstay.

 

Surachet said that the illegals come to Thailand taking jobs as language teachers in schools but get up to romance scams, prostitution, call center activities, human trafficking and drug related crime.

 

This third such sweep of illegals was trumpeted as "X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner" but exactly what this meant was not explained by Thai Rath.

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-03-09

[anon789561]

wouldn't have thought they'd be able to get jobs at international schools? thought maybe local high schools or crappy language schools

[Darcula]

Does this mean PTA coffee meets at international schools are not going to be colourful as before?

[H1w4yR1da]

"Surachet - the deputy commissioner for the tourist police."

 

And people still think the Tourist Police are there to assist tourists ..... they're there to POLICE the tourists. To make sure they don't cause trouble.

[YetAnother]

23 minutes ago, webfact said:

This third such sweep of illegals was trumpeted as "X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner" but exactly what this meant was not explained by Thai Rath.

might be a good reason why it wasn't 'explained' publicly;

putting the two words together 'outlaw' as adjective to 'foreigner' is yet another example of thais underscoring their desired self-aggrandizement of thais over non-thais; some call it racism

[simon43]

And people still think the Tourist Police are there to assist tourists ..... they're there to POLICE the tourists.

LoL, when I worked as a Tourist Police Officer in Phuket, some foreign tourists would ask me what my role was.

I would explain that my role was to protect foreign tourists from the Thai police, (a tongue-in-cheek statement, but sometimes not far from the truth).

[leeneeds]

Stop at the border campaign is still not working as well as it could do, 

 

 

 

[JAG]

33 minutes ago, Happy enough said:

wouldn't have thought they'd be able to get jobs at international schools? thought maybe local high schools or crappy language schools

The definition of "International Schools" can be somewhat loose. Some are schools which follow foreign curricula, typically from the USA or UK, and employ well qualified and experienced foreign teachers, teaching in foreign languages (typically English). Fees are high and the quality of education offered is good.

 

Some are schools which employ people from a large selection of foreign countries. Fees are less, but still high and the quality of education is crap...

[Eligius]

The top cop's nickname here sure does inspire confidence, doesn't it: 'BIG JOKE'. What a joke!!

[webfact]

144 ‘coloured’ foreigners rounded up nationwide

By The Nation

 

 

Tourist police last night rounded up 144 foreigners, most of them from Nigeria and Cameroon, in a race-based campaign targeting “coloured” people engaged in various crimes.
 

Tourist police deputy chief Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakpal, who spearheaded the raids, also repeated his order for a nationwide search for "illegal" foreigners.

 

Surachet changed the name of the ongoing operation from “Operation Black Eagles” to “X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner” as police searched 110 spots around the country.

 

The night’s raids resulted in 144 arrests, Surachet said at a 1:40am post-raid press conference at the Rotfai Market on Ratchadapisek Road in Bangkok’s Din Daeng district.

 

In Bangkok alone 41 were arrested, 25 for allegedly having unlawfully entered the kingdom, 15 for overstaying their visas and three over drug use.

 

Surachet said all those arrested would be blacklisted and deported.

 

He told reporters that the searches focussed on "coloured" people who came to use Thailand to carry out various crimes, including romance scams, call-centre scams, prostitution, human trafficking and drug trafficking.

 

Surachet said some illegal foreigners had come to work as English teachers in international or bilingual schools, including teaching English to kindergarten kids in Chon Buri.

 

Police would later check with the schools to discover whether the English teachers have legal document to live in the Kingdom, Surachet added.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30340552

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-03-09

[Somtamnication]

Raids based on color, not qualifications. Shame shame shame Thailand!

[HLover]

3 minutes ago, Somtamnication said:

Raids based on color, not qualifications. Shame shame shame Thailand!

Surely you have a better solution?

[Darcula]

What Pantone shade are Romanians these days?

[Thaiwrath]

[FritsSikkink]

1 hour ago, H1w4yR1da said:

"Surachet - the deputy commissioner for the tourist police."

 

And people still think the Tourist Police are there to assist tourists ..... they're there to POLICE the tourists. To make sure they don't cause trouble.

They assist tourist but people on overstay or working without a permit aren't tourists.

[jenny2017]

 

    Who's next?  There can't be a better message to tell all other foreigners how much of an Outlaw we all are. 

[Airbagwill]

It appears they are racially profiling - there must be hundreds of western teachers working illegally for various private language schools, big and small, why not target them?

 

[bkkcanuck8]

2 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

They assist tourist but people on overstay or working without a permit aren't tourists.

Correct, once you violate the terms of your visa (or visa waiver) the visa is no longer valid.  It states right on the tourist visa that "Employment Prohibited".  While at the school I would have hoped (though not expected) that they would go through the entire employee roster and make sure they are all legal.  

[UPDEHSOI]

3 hours ago, Darcula said:

What Pantone shade are Romanians these days?

Some of them are red faced at the moment, I would think.

 

[IamNoone88]

"X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner" - Oh dear, perhaps some could attend the very language classes they are currently investigating? Perhaps some form of quid pro quo. ..... x-ray delta tango foreigner over n out .....

[Jeremy50]

Foreigners are only barely tolerated in this country, if you think otherwise you are only kidding yourself. 

[BobbyL]

Another ridiculous and unsubstantiated article. 

[brain150]

144 is a very interesting number 

[car720]

4 hours ago, YetAnother said:

might be a good reason why it wasn't 'explained' publicly;

putting the two words together 'outlaw' as adjective to 'foreigner' is yet another example of thais underscoring their desired self-aggrandizement of thais over non-thais; some call it racism

Aha!!!  But they never mentioned pirates.

[Kieran00001]

12 minutes ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

Do they even answer the phone or speak in English if you call them these days?

 

Used to be un-contactable, and if by some miracle you managed to get through to report a crime as a tourist they weren't able to speak even pidgin English. 

 

Why would they be able to speak pidgin?  It is more of a Caribbean thing and would you understand them if they could?

[Lupatria]

3 hours ago, Darcula said:

What Pantone shade are Romanians these days?

500 shades of grey.

[jenny2017]

8 minutes ago, Airbagwill said:

It appears they are racially profiling - there must be hundreds of western teachers working illegally for various private language schools, big and small, why not target them?

 

   There are so many degree-less, on fake degrees, and on tourist visa working white people that it can only be a matter of time until this bubble will blow. 

 

   Agencies who employ these people, and send them to schools, should pay all the bills, be fully responsible, including an eventual imprisonment, because they are always dishonest about the consequences to keep their prey quiet and always available. 

 

  And looking at the in no way increasing salaries, where even experienced teachers with degrees are offered around 35 K for 10 months, and considering the witch-hunt that has started, Thailand became a country that should be avoided these days.

 

Looking at the racist tendency of Thais, I feel sad when I think about all the great colored American ( and other nationalities) teachers who are already guilty of something that's got nothing to do with them.

 

Some narrow minded people in soldier uniforms will never understand the difference between a fully legal and experienced colored teacher and those who sell drugs and abuse teaching as a loophole to do their dirty work. It's truly amazing that so many head teachers of schools don't even understand the difference between North America and North Africa. 

[Lupatria]

22 minutes ago, IamNoone88 said:

"X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner" - Oh dear, perhaps some could attend the very language classes they are currently investigating? Perhaps some form of quid pro quo. ..... x-ray delta tango foreigner over n out .....

Note: those suffering a broken neck after an accident are exempted from X-Ray  in hospitals.

[chippendale]

3 hours ago, Darcula said:

What Pantone shade are Romanians these days?

A darker shade of gypsy.

[tubby johnson]

3 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

Raids based on color, not qualifications. Shame shame shame Thailand!

None of them have qualifications. A lot of them just happen to be black, the rest Romanian gypsies.

 

You blame the police for arresting criminals on illegal entry, overstay, unqualified to teach, no work permit.

 

Some people only whine and complain. Others solve problems.