Foreigners targeted at Najomtien immigration checkpoint

[BestB]

1 hour ago, scorecard said:

Why? They're doing their job.

 

Do you expect the various authorities in your country to check that foreigners in your country have valid visas, etc., etc?

 

Or are you quite OK for any persons including those with criminal records, known mafia members, child molesters and more to freely enter and live in your country without any checks?

 

 

But should they not perform the checks prior to letting them in ? Instead of hunting down all? 

 

To my knowledgr in most countries immigration first makes investigations  before raiding premises or business where as here they target anyone who does not look Thai.

 

which is kind of weird when you supppsedly welcome 30 million tourists and want more .

 

what do you think would happen if French immigration started detaining people and checking their passports around Eiffel tower? Or Italians around Collosium? Or Australians around Sydney harbour bridge 

[scorecard]

5 minutes ago, BestB said:

But should they not perform the checks prior to letting them in ? Instead of hunting down all? 

 

To my knowledgr in most countries immigration first makes investigations  before raiding premises or business where as here they target anyone who does not look Thai.

 

which is kind of weird when you supppsedly welcome 30 million tourists and want more .

 

what do you think would happen if French immigration started detaining people and checking their passports around Eiffel tower? Or Italians around Collosium? Or Australians around Sydney harbour bridge 

 

Point taken, there surely is a case that the whole process should be more professional, more comprehensive, fast and much more watertight in terms of who does enter the county?

 

Other countries can do it, so can LOS, and it's obvious a total re-think of the whole subject is urgently needed, and way way less band-aids. 

 

 

[Spidey]

57 minutes ago, baansgr said:

So they should, however this stretch of road will be legal tourists on their way from Pattaya to Nong  Nooch, Silver Lake and the Navy beaches. This is where there was three road blocks in 38kms on Tuesday....thats a bit much in anyone's books. If they want the overstayers etc,  it's the restaurants, suit shops, schools in the boonies etc for illegals 

Na Jomtien and particularly Ambassador City is the haunt of Russians. Quite clear which nationality they were targeting.

[Henrik Andersen]

1 hour ago, baansgr said:

So they should, however this stretch of road will be legal tourists on their way from Pattaya to Nong  Nooch, Silver Lake and the Navy beaches. This is where there was three road blocks in 38kms on Tuesday....thats a bit much in anyone's books. If they want the overstayers etc,  it's the restaurants, suit shops, schools in the boonies etc for illegals 

You spot on and if they was smart check on beaches in Pattaya too 

[BestB]

1 hour ago, scorecard said:

 

Point taken, there surely is a case that the whole process should be more professional, more comprehensive, fast and much more watertight in terms of who does enter the county?

 

Other countries can do it, so can LOS, and it's obvious a total re-think of the whole subject is urgently needed, and way way less band-aids. 

 

 

Totally agreed, But what makes my blood boil is the extremes how Thai handle situations,

 

Its either free for all chaos or an iron hand to punish all across.

 

As mentioned earlier, just look at all other countries with high tourist numbers, they do not seem to dwell on hunting down foreigners, the percentage of over stayers is decimal in on the larger scale, and yet BJ makes it sound as if majority are illegals or breaking the law one way or another

 

If thats the case, stop giving out free visas and stop whining about tourist numbers falling when it happens.

 

Despite BJ'S big head and Thai racism, fact is minimal amount of people want to live in Thailand in comparison to other countries,

 

People pay thousands of dollars to migrate to Australia or US or Canada and those who stay illegally are not exactly partying on daily basis, but rather hiding and working crappy jobs. Jobs locals do not want to do.

 

Even those in Thailand who overstay their visa are nothing but a formality. They do not receive any state benefits, or enjoy free healthcare or any benefits what so ever. Its a visa with zero benefits or rewards

[BestB]

1 hour ago, Kim J said:

But if everything is done correctly, professionally and efficiently as you suggest, that would get rid of the road side shake down opportunities.

Traffic road blocks is one thing, immigration hunts is what i do not agree with.

 

With traffic stop shake downs, to be honest i do not have a problem at all.

 

In all honesty and fairness, how many times per day do you break traffic rules one way or another?

 

I know i do a dozen times per day, ranging from illegal uturns, to illegal parking, speeding and few other things.

 

If and when i get pulled over and shaken down for 500-1000 baht, i do not mind paying at all even more so when i was caught doing something illegal.

 

Back in the West, you park 2 cm more than allowed away from the curb and you get a huge fine, you park too close to the corner and you get a fine, you park 1 min later than the meter and you get a fine, you speed and camera gets you, you run yellow light and you pay the fine.

 

So, its really not a bad deal to be able to get away with most traffic infringements but get caught on occasion ????

[Nyezhov]

2 hours ago, BestB said:

 

what do you think would happen if French immigration started detaining people and checking their passports around Eiffel tower? Or Italians around Collosium? Or Australians around Sydney harbour bridge 

Well the Thais dont check passports at Wat Pho, so the better "what if" would be the Dutch checking passports in Amsterdam outside the RLD.

[BestB]

2 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

Well the Thais dont check passports at Wat Pho, so the better "what if" would be the Dutch checking passports in Amsterdam outside the RLD.

But they check it everywhere else,even when you are out in the club. So the what if is totally relevant, because other countries with high tourist numbers do not hunt tourists and foreigners en mass, unlike Thai authorities lately

[Nyezhov]

11 minutes ago, BestB said:

But they check it everywhere else,even when you are out in the club. So the what if is totally relevant, because other countries with high tourist numbers do not hunt tourists and foreigners en mass, unlike Thai authorities lately

good for them in seeking to control their borders.

[A1Str8]

They were not targeted. They just checked their pass and license. Thats quite normal. If you had a country, would you check on the incoming traffic, to make sure all is well or would you let any bum in?

[Spidey]

6 minutes ago, A1Str8 said:

They were not targeted. They just checked their pass and license. Thats quite normal. If you had a country, would you check on the incoming traffic, to make sure all is well or would you let any bum in?

Well try that in the UK or States, set up a roadblock and ask everyone with brown skin for their passports.

[BestB]

11 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

good for them in seeking to control their borders.

But they are not controlling their borders

 

If they were, then checks would have been done on the borders, not 600 kms away from the nearest border;)

[steve187]

4 hours ago, baansgr said:

Seriously under Castro it wasn't half this bad. 

when was castro PM here

[BestB]

10 minutes ago, A1Str8 said:

They were not targeted. They just checked their pass and license. Thats quite normal. If you had a country, would you check on the incoming traffic, to make sure all is well or would you let any bum in?

If i had a country, i would be checking at the border not in the middle of the country.

 

And if i had a country and was all that bothered about foreigners ruining it, then i would not be crying when number of foreign visitors drops 

[steve187]

6 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Well try that in the UK or States, set up a roadblock and ask everyone with brown skin for their passports.

the difference being white skin people are not native here, whereas in the UK and the USA brown skinned people are native.

[BestB]

2 minutes ago, steve187 said:

the difference being white skin people are not native here, whereas in the UK and the USA brown skinned people are native.

Actually white skin are the natives, while brown skin are the mixes from Isaan;)

[Spidey]

15 minutes ago, steve187 said:

the difference being white skin people are not native here, whereas in the UK and the USA brown skinned people are native.

I'm a native of the UK and my backside is proper white.

[Spidey]

13 minutes ago, BestB said:

Actually white skin are the natives, while brown skin are the mixes from Isaan;)

White skin are the descendants of Chinese. Thais have brown backsides, usually with a black stripe down the middle.

[balo]

4 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

who else would you target at a immigration checkpoint?

Martians

[balo]

3 hours ago, BestB said:

But should they not perform the checks prior to letting them in ? Instead of hunting down all?

Strange thing to say,  what about overstays, you can't check that until it happens right? 

[steve187]

17 minutes ago, BestB said:

Actually white skin are the natives, while brown skin are the mixes from Isaan;)

my wife is from Bangkok and her family have always lived in Bangkok, and she is brown, the only white Thai's are the ones that stay in all day or are of mixed race

[NanLaew]

4 hours ago, baansgr said:

So they should, however this stretch of road will be legal tourists on their way from Pattaya to Nong  Nooch, Silver Lake and the Navy beaches. This is where there was three road blocks in 38kms on Tuesday....thats a bit much in anyone's books. If they want the overstayers etc,  it's the restaurants, suit shops, schools in the boonies etc for illegals 

Keep in mind that south of the Ambassador, just past Nong Nooch and inland from Ban Saray, there are housing developments where Russians are the predominant residents. Baan Dusit Pattaya Lake is just one of them. There also some on the darkside being built by Russian developers. Some have websites that are exclusively in the Russian language.

 

Since Big Joke was making much of recently nabbing a Russian who had been flagged by Interpol, maybe they're looking more closely at a precise demographic here?

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, BestB said:

But they are not controlling their borders

 

If they were, then checks would have been done on the borders, not 600 kms away from the nearest border;)

FWIW, the US Immigration has a checkpoint on highway 281, about 40 miles north of McAllen and the border with Mexico. The cop gave me a hard time as I was coming back from spring break on South Padre with a couple of Houston strippers in my car. But he believed the strippers when they told them that I really hadn't come from Mexico.

 

PS. The sea is a border too.

[SamuiGeezer]

8 hours ago, champers said:

Is it just me, or does it seem like a lot of police activity directed against Russians lately? Who will be next?

That's just great if it is true! Is it just me, or does it seem like there are too many rude Russians here lately? I'm told they manage to get ED Visas based on their kids being in kindergarten. 1 per child.

 

33 minutes ago, Kim J said:

Exactly the same applies to Mrs Kim.

Also many from the Southern provinces of Thailand are darker skinned. Those that think it is only Isaan people that are brown are simply deluded.

Many of the whiter skinned Thais, particularly around Bangkok and Chonburi are of Chinese descent or mixed race as you state. Also as you say the rest of them most likely never see any sun.

My Mrs too. She goes in the sun and turns dark brown within a couple of seconds. The white Thais are the ones with the umbrellas, I assume that they are vampires, right?

[BestB]

3 hours ago, balo said:

Strange thing to say,  what about overstays, you can't check that until it happens right? 

Yes, but does 0.01% overstays out of 30 million warrant nationwide hunts?

[BestB]

3 hours ago, steve187 said:

my wife is from Bangkok and her family have always lived in Bangkok, and she is brown, the only white Thai's are the ones that stay in all day or are of mixed race

Many people in Bangkok are not native Bangkokias( is that the word?) many have roots from isaan. 

 

Bangkokians also have different facial features . But all that is irrelevant , what is relevant is racist hunt for foreigners, based on nothing but racial profiling which no one can deny as not too long ago they were hunting black skin foreigners .

[shy coconut]

8 hours ago, baansgr said:

I don't think people mind having to have a valid visa,  it's the constant checking in,  90 days,  TM whatever they are and all the other beaurocracy just to stay legal.... Seriously under Castro it wasn't half this bad. 

Was there a large ex-pat community in Cuba, and were the authorities relaxed

about visa status?

[bkk6060]

10 hours ago, Spidey said:

Well try that in the UK or States, set up a roadblock and ask everyone with brown skin for their passports.

Well, they have done studies on this and more many more Blacks and Mexicans are stopped/detained by the police in the US then whites.  

Racism, racial profiling whatever you want to call it exists even in the most advanced countries believe it or not....

[Spidey]

6 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Well, they have done studies on this and more many more Blacks and Mexicans are stopped/detained by the police in the US then whites.  

Racism, racial profiling whatever you want to call it exists even in the most advanced countries believe it or not....

I do believe it. If the same study were done in the UK, I'm sure the results would be similar. But, both countries have a policy of not racially profiling subjects of stop and search. It's generally accepted as racism in both countries and frowned upon. Not so in Thailand. Racism seems to be acceptable and the norm in Thailand.

[jackdd]

16 hours ago, Kim J said:

I am fully aware this has always been a requirement in Thailand

This was never a requirement.

There is only a law which says you need to have a form of identitification (same law for foreigners and Thais), but it doesn't say you have to carry it arround with you, or be able to show it on the spot.