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Chiang Mai: 100 armed police arrest foreigners for not carrying passports


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100 Armed Police Raid Zoe in Yellow, No Criminals Found

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CHIANG MAI: Last night, 18th February, one hundred police officers and tourist police officers raided and roped off the Zoe in Yellow entertainment complex, refusing to let tourists go, testing urine for drugs and arresting tourists without a passport on them.

At 10pm last night, the police raided the complex, quickly roping off the area with police tape to stop anybody leaving or entering.

Some of the police were armed with assault rifles.

The police did random urine testing on many party goers but found no evidence for any substance abuse.

Full story: http://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/news/100-armed-police-raid-zoe-in-yellow-no-criminals-found/

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-- Chiang City News 2016-01-20

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I carry a credit-card sized, laminated copy of the main passport page with copy of the current visa on the reverse, plus my driving licence. It will be interesting to see if they accept that, since last year's announcement that a copy was enough...

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I carry a credit-card sized, laminated copy of the main passport page with copy of the current visa on the reverse, plus my driving licence. It will be interesting to see if they accept that, since last year's announcement that a copy was enough...

You beat me to it as I was posting. But you're quite correct.

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It's a good idea to keep a (reduced size) photocopy of your passport about your person. Technically the law requires you to carry the original at all times; but in practice a photocopy will do.

That's what I do also, since I don't want to risk carrying around (and potentially losing) my original passport.

But in the news reports of the recent passport raids in Pattaya and Chiang Mai, there's been no mention of whether those arrested for not having "passports" either didn't have anything, or perhaps had copies but not the originals. No mention of that detail whatsoever.

So, I'd say it's pretty hard to know/assume whether a copy is going to be sufficient in this latest "crackdown" -- notwithstanding what the authorities told us last year.

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Totally OTT and frankly outrageous behaviour in a supposedly civilised country - Thailand is firmly in reverse gear and my wife and I are firmly headed back to the UK in a few weeks as a result.

Goodbye Thailand and we wish Thais all the best in their bleak future.................

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There is a difference between being detained and being arrested. Arrested just makes better headlines. The latter means going through the full process of booking the person in preparation for court appearance. One member who was caught up in it said none of that happened and many just walked away from the station.

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The final sentence of the City News report says

All the tourists who did not have their passport with them were taken to Chiang Mai police station and processed.

In Thai police parlance, I don't know what "processed" means.... clearly detained... arrested, apparently... charged, not clear...

Not obvious what they are referring to regarding 'processed'. If some had zero form of ID on them then I can see going through the whole procedure.

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This and the similar raids in Pattaya lately arresting people for not carrying passports....

The military government just deciding to flex its muscles, or, a response to the reports of some kind of IS terrorist threat inside Thailand?

When you know that terrorist come from western country, some of them are native and converted and carry french or belgian passeport

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I'm not taking my passport out on the piss, period.

And if that isn't acceptable in Thailand, I'll go elsewhere.

I've already moved this year's golf tour (10 people) from Pattaya to Cambodia.

So ---- them and their silly rules.

The Chinese can have the place as far as I'm concerned.

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The only times I carry my passport is when I have to go to Immigration, and when I take one of my bike trips. Only once during my many trips was I asked for my actual passport, instead of them accepting the laminated copy, along with my Thai driving license. They simply compared the laminated copy to the original, smiled, said "Thank you", handed them back and waved me on.

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I carry a credit-card sized, laminated copy of the main passport page with copy of the current visa on the reverse, plus my driving licence. It will be interesting to see if they accept that, since last year's announcement that a copy was enough...

Good as long as you have a copy of the current visa stamp too
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I carry a credit-card sized, laminated copy of the main passport page with copy of the current visa on the reverse, plus my driving licence. It will be interesting to see if they accept that, since last year's announcement that a copy was enough...

I do too.. :)

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There is a difference between being detained and being arrested. Arrested just makes better headlines. The latter means going through the full process of booking the person in preparation for court appearance. One member who was caught up in it said none of that happened and many just walked away from the station.

Thats nonsense..

I myself have been arrested, then released without charge, in my youth.. Arrest does not mean your automatically charged it means having your liberty removed. Detained is stopped and asked a question or two, but then are free to go, if your not free to go after that, your under arrest.

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