Regional News

Thailand Crime Getting Crime in Proportion

Europeans and Americans are universally viewed as wealthy and this leads to temptation

CHIANG RAI – Thai people are remarkably relaxed and easy going. Buddhist philosophy discourages ‘hot bloodedness’. Politeness is ingrained from birth and most Thai people are both scrupulously honest and very unwilling to be intrusive.

Even so, Europeans and Americans are universally viewed as wealthy and this leads to temptation. Some Thai’s have learnt to prey upon travellers and expats and in Thailand, crime can be a threat as much as it can in any other country. In matters of honour, business and love, Thai people can be transformed. ‘Hot bloodedness’ so frowned upon in Buddhist teaching can overwhelm individuals with fatal consequences.

The Statistics

Thailand ranks low for most reported crimes when compared with Western countries- with one big exception. Thailand is near the top of any list of countries for murder with firearms.

Gun crime is most often related to gang wars There is a serious problem of organized drug crime in the border areas with Burma, Cambodia and Laos. Guns are also often used to settle business disputes and jealous lovers- both men and women- use guns to settle scores depressingly often.

A few foreigners each year are caught in the cross fire. An unknown number of foreigners (a few dozen, maybe) are murdered deliberately mainly as a result of business disputes but sometimes by jealous or abandoned lovers. There are occasional reports of foreign men being murdered by their Thai wives for money or property,

Thailand’s kids are some of the best behaved and likable kids in the world. Unfortunately, the number of murders committed by teenagers is frighteningly high- more than 1,400 in the last recorded year. Again, guns were the favorite weapon. Often the reasons for the murders are trivial matters of perceived disrespect.

Perception of Crime in Thailand

There is a widespread perception that crime is a serious problem amongst both Thais and expatriates. The local government in Phuket recently identified crime as being the biggest brake on the development of the tourist industry. Many expatriates believe crime levels in Thailand are as bad or worse than in their home countries, despite the statistics and in major tourist areas like Pattaya, Phuket and Ko Samui, this may be true.

Crimes against Foreigners

Scams

Scams are common in Bangkok. In fact, scammers are the first Thais you are likely to have contact with on arrival at the airport. The touts will offer tours which are overpriced and hotels which are dingy and expensive.

Away from the airport, taxi drivers and tuk tuk drivers are most often the scammers

The best option is to queue for one of the official taxis that, for 600 bt, will take you into central Bangkok to a hotel of your choice.

Away from the airport, taxi drivers and tuk tuk drivers are most often the scammers in Bangkok. If you need a taxi, hail one of the thousands of brightly painted cabs with a Taxi-Meter sign on its roof. If the driver switches on the meter, all is well. The legal fares are not expensive. If the taxi driver doesn’t switch on the meter it is best to get out at the first opportunity. The fare will be exorbitant and he will try any line to keep you in the back of his taxi..

Most especially, beware of taxi drivers offering tours. These will include visits to grossly expensive shops and restaurants from whom the taxi driver will get commission.

Taxi drivers sometimes pick up their victims outside famous monuments claiming falsely that the monument is closed. They then offer their own alternative tour.

Most ordinary taxi drivers don’t speak English and don’t know Bangkok well (truly). Offering the driver a map- tourist maps are easy to find- is the best way to get to a destination. Hotel staff will write directions in Thai if you ask them.

Avoid touts offering to take you to a gemstone shop. They will sell at hugely inflated prices. The gem scam is famous enough to have it’s own wikipedia entry.

The Easiest Way for a Man to Get Beaten Up (or perhaps even killed)

Go into a bar for Thai and start hitting on the young women. This is going to antagonize someone.

Almost every young woman will have a boyfriend or a string of young men, each of whom who wants to be a boyfriend.

Even if you get encouragement from the woman (who might be flattered or might be thinking of money) this could easily end with an outraged Thai man getting his friends together to ambush you later.

Tuk Tuks

In Bangkok, Tuk Tuks routinely overcharge foreigners. In Phuket it sometimes amounts to money demanded with menaces. Small journeys attract exorbitant fees and if travelers refuse to pay, they can find themselves attacked.

The police are generally not too interested if you complain.

Street Robberies

Street robberies are usually only a problem in highly commercialized areas like Phuket, Ko Samui and Pattaya. Large numbers of tourists with cash to spend attract criminal gangs. Ko Samui is notorious for bag snatching with gang members on motor cycles. Pattaya has a history of serious assaults during street robberies at night- often on drinkers walking home in the early hours. In Phuket, car drivers are stopped and robbed from time to time in the back streets and foreigners have been knocked from motor cycles and robbed.

Avoid back streets at night!

Sexual Assaults

Given the many millions of tourists in Thailand each year, sexual assaults on visitors are very rare. Even so, they do happen and both men and women have been targeted. Keep a clear head and be aware of your surroundings at all times. If you sense any problems leave immediately. Remember there is safety in numbers.

There have been occasional, unsubstantiated reports of travelers being given drugged food before being robbed or assaulted.

Foreign Gangsters

Russian mafia, English gangsters, paedophiles of every nationality, fraudsters and conmen- the main tourist areas of Thailand attract a bad crowd.

In a recent case, an elderly American retiree was shot after a very public internet row on a popular forum. He was resisting payment of exorbitant water rates demanded by an English property developer. The developer claimed the row had destroyed his ‘business’. After the shooting, the Englishman fled. It was revealed that he was wanted as a leader of a drug gang in the UK.

Property Scams

It is never a good idea to buy property in Thailand through the internet or from ads in local papers without a lot of advise from locals. Property laws are complex and lawyers and developers should be suspect unless well recomended by people with nothing to gain.

Recently, Hua Hin has seen a string of murders of foreigners involved in the recession hit property business.

Rural Areas

Rural Thais are usually kind, open and helpful people. There are still dangers though. It is well known for quiet country roads to be blocked at night and travellers to be robbed. Also young Thai men are as capable of violence as any other men in the world. Young travellers should be aware of insensitivity and drunkeness in quiet communities.

Full Moon Parties

There have been incidents when foreigners have been assaulted by local men at full moon parties on Islands near Ko Samui.

Crime committed by Foreigners

Lese Majeste

This is the crime of insulting the King of Thailand or the monarchy. It is taken very seriously and can result in long prison terms. Generally, foreigners are pardoned by the King and deported but only after a long stay in detention prior to trial.

Gambling

All forms of gambling in Thailand are crimes except for the national lottery. Illegal card games are a national addiction, usually held in hotel rooms or back rooms of clubs and snooker halls.

Police enforce anti-gambling laws strictly and in many communities it is the cause of most arrests. Never get caught with cards and money on the same table.

Drugs

Tackling drug crime is a high priority for the Thai authorities. Police have the power to stop and search suspects, their vehicles and their homes without a warrant. Sting operations are sometimes used to catch drug users. Clubs may be raided and urine samples taken for analysis. Anyone proving positive will be charged. Amphetamines are a commonly abused drug.

Thai sentencing regimes are very variable, ranging from fines and deportation for possessing small quantities of marijuana to decade’s long jail terms for drug dealing.

Recently the new government has sworn to wage a new ‘War on Drugs’. During the previous ‘War on Drugs’, arrests increased threefold, sentences became harsher and 2,500 Thai’s died at the hands of police.

Trafficking can attract the death penalty- which is very bad for your health.

Passport Irregularities

Passport or visa irregularities often result in a jail sentence of at least one year. Some companies and tour shops in the larger tourist centers offer to extend visas without the need to visit an immigration centre or leave the country. They then forge stamps in the passport which can lead to arrest when you try to leave Thailand.

You may be refused entry to Thailand if your passport is damaged, especially if any pages are missing.

Copyright and Illegal Software.

Ordinary Thais use pirate copies of Windows and other programs as a matter of course. Any computer shop will provide a full software package for free if you have an upgrade or need a repair.

Lately, though, Thai authorities are taking a tougher line on intellectual property and copyright infringement by businesses. Among other measures, a recent law gives almost any government body the right to search computers for illegal software without warrants. Dedicated enforcement units will raid businesses on tip offs. Staff are offered large rewards for turning in employers using illegal programs. Heavy penalties can result.

Thai Internet Laws

All Internet traffic is logged by ISP’s in Thailand. Data and identities of surfers are retained for at least 90 days, Crimes range from hacking and fraud to lese majeste. All Internet pornography is illegal in Thailand.

Counterfeit Goods

Pirated Cd’s, counterfeit watches, clothes, cell phones and almost any kind of fake goods you can imagine are on open sale in markets all over Thailand. The police occasionally take an interest and arrest a few sellers. If you take fake goods back with you, customs in your country may arrest you on arrival.

Vice

Prostitution is illegal but the law is rarely enforced. Even the most remote rural community has some form of paid sex available- usually through a karaoke bar.

In the last few years, underage prostitution (involving girls less than 18) has become a serious priority for police with many arrests.

Thai Prisons

Conditions in Thai prisons are generally poor with serious overcrowding and sometimes problems of TB, AIDs and poor medical treatment. Best avoided.

Thailand Visa Overstay

Currently, visas are issued for thirty days at airports but only two weeks at land crossings. This is apparently to discourage people from staying long term in Thailand by making regular ‘visa runs’ to the border.For overstaying your visa in Thailand there is a fine of 500bt per day. Overstaying for a long period can lead to arrest and imprisonment. The best option for anyone who overstays a visa long term- whether through illness or personal circumstances-is to exit through Suvarnabhumi International Airport. This is probably the only place where long term over-stayers are not arrested. The maximum fine is around 20,000bt- but this could change anytime and is worth checking.
Longer term visas can be obtained legally in a variety of ways. The rules are constantly altered and a visit to the Thai Visa Forum is recommended. Visa-and-Immigration-Forums

Thailand’s Deep South

A long running Muslim-Buddhist conflict has brought violence and crime to three of Thailand’s, mostly Muslim, provinces on the Malaysia border.

Most foreign countries advise against visits to Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. – by Will Apse

Regional News

Thai Immigration Police Detain Over 26,000 Illegal Migrant Workers

Thailand’s Immigration Police have detained approximately 26,000 illegal migrant workers from Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia during an eight-day operation in Bangkok and surrounding regions, according to a Royal Thai Police spokesperson.

Mr Adisorn Keudmeuangkhon of the Bangkok-based Migrant Working Group said the drive was in response to an increasing number of concerns about an influx of illegal migrant labor.

“Some Thai people see that many illegal workers are competing for their job positions in the past few months,” he told me. “That’s why the ministry has to take tougher action.”

Civil strife in Myanmar and the recent implementation of a military conscription have driven thousands of Burmese into Thailand, while severe inflation and limited job opportunities in Laos have also encouraged an influx of workers from that country.

Between June 5 and 12, officials detained and checked 20,111 Myanmar laborers, 1,659 Laotian migrant workers, and 3,971 Cambodian workers, according to the Ministry of Labor.

It marked the start of a 120-day campaign to audit workplaces and arrest unlawful migrant workers, according to the government.

Migrant Workers to be Deported

According to Keudmeuangkhon, undocumented workers face fines ranging from 5,000 to 50,000 Thai baht (US $136 to $1,365), deportation, and a two-year prohibition on re-entering Thailand.

Authorities did not intend to file criminal charges, he claimed.

Authorities raided 1,774 workplaces, according to Moe Gyo, chairman of the Joint Action Committee on Burmese Affairs, which advocates for Myanmar labor rights.

He stated that since the military junta activated conscription, there has been an upsurge in the number of arrests of Myanmar citizens in Thailand who do not have a work permit identity card.

All men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 must serve in the military for at least two years. The first group of 5,000 conscripts summoned by Myanmar’s junta will start duty at the end of this month, military sources told AFP on Monday.

According to Keudmeuangkhon, the bulk of Lao migrant workers in Thailand work as fresh market shopkeepers, restaurant servers, and mall salespeople.

Most people visit Thailand as part of ASEAN’s visa-free policy for tourists, but they stay longer than the 30-day restriction once they find job.

“Employers like to hire Lao migrant workers in the service sector because they can speak fluent Thai,” he told me.

Immigration Police Detain Illegal Migrant Workers

The Thai Cabinet may approve an enhanced program for Thai employers to register their unauthorized foreign workers in July or August. Keudmeuangkhon explained.

Last month, the Thai Ministry of Labor’s Foreign Workers Administration office announced that 268,465 Lao migrant workers were officially working in Thailand.

Baykham Kattiya, Lao Minister of Labor, told Radio Free Asia earlier this month that there are 415,956 migrant workers in other nations, the majority of whom work in Thailand.

According to her, the Lao government believes that over 203,000 persons working outside of the nation lack proper work documents.

However, a Lao official familiar with the labor industry informed Radio Free Asia, a BenarNews-affiliated news station, on June 20 that the number of illegal Lao migrant workers in Thailand and abroad is likely significantly greater.

“They go to other countries as illegal migrant workers through different types of methods – as tourists or students,” said the politician. “Thus, it is hard for the immigration police to collect data on these people.”

Government Officials Responsible for Smuggling in Migrant Workers

Government Officials Responsible for Smuggling in Migrant Workers

News

High School Student Dies After Being Electrocuted By School Water Dispenser

14-year-old boy was electrocuted by a water dispenser: File Image

Thailand’s Office of Basic Education Commission has initiated an investigation into the electrocution of a 14-year-old student by a water dispenser in a high school. The event happened at noon on Friday, during the high school’s sports day. The victim was a Grade 8 student.

According to local media in Trang Province, the incident occurred when a teacher instructed the pupil to turn off a water dispenser amid a heavy rain.

According to a witness, the child collapsed while strolling with his friend near a water station. The friend claimed he attempted to assist but was also shocked by electricity.

According to reports, the friend then recovered, left the site, and requested assistance from teachers. A teacher ran to the scene and used a towel to pull the boy away by the ankle. He was taken to the hospital, but it was too late, they claimed.

The event sparked criticism from parents and netizens over school safety, as well as the slow response to aid the young youngster.

Mr. Chainarong Changrua, head of Trang-Krabi’s Secondary Educational Service Area Office, told local media on Sunday that forensic officers from Trang Provincial Police had visited the area. They discovered the blown breaker switch behind the water dispenser, he explained.

The breaker was burned out, thus the authorities assumed the disaster was caused by a short circuit that allowed energy to spill to a neighboring power pole. The student also appeared wet and was not wearing shoes when electrocuted.

According to the Office of Basic Education Commission, a probe team will complete its investigation this week.

The student’s father, Mr Pornchai Thepsuwan, 53, claimed he was saddened when he saw his son’s body. The boy (Wayu), was the youngest of two boys, he explained. He stated that following the tragedy, the school director and staff gave financial assistance to the families.

Mr Pornchai also said he would not seek charges against the institution because he believed it was an accident.

Electrical accidents in Thailand

Electrocution instances in Thailand have increased alarmingly in recent years. Many mishaps occur as a result of improper wiring and inadequate maintenance of electrical systems.

Public locations, such as schools and markets, frequently lack adequate safety precautions, putting individuals in danger. In rural areas, antiquated infrastructure exacerbates the situation, resulting in more frequent and serious events.

Although several high-profile cases have brought these challenges to light, genuine progress has been gradual. Furthermore, the rainy season heightens the likelihood of electrical accidents, as water and exposed wires do not mix well.

The government has made steps to strengthen safety standards, but enforcement is patchy. More education on electrical safety could help to reduce these accidents.

Unfortunately, better infrastructure and tougher rules may have prevented many of these incidents. The loss and injuries caused by electrocution are avoidable, emphasizing the need for immediate action.

Over 200 High School Students Facing Sedition Charges in Thailand

Over 200 High School Students Facing Sedition Charges in Thailand

News

Thailand’s Tourist Police Crackdown on Tourist Scammers in Pattaya

Tourist Police Pattaya: File Image

Thailand’s Tourist Police said it is collaborating with embassies from five countries to combat tourist scams and ten criminal gangs in Pattaya. The Tourist Police Bureau, convened a meeting on Thursday Pol Lt Gen Saksira Phuek-am told a press briefing.

Pol Lt Gen Saksira Phuek-am, the Tourist Police bureau commissioner said the participants included ambassadors from South Korea, Ukraine, Russia, India, and Switzerland.

He told the briefing the he had ordered a crackdown on tourist frauds, such as fraudulent or low-quality tour operators and unfair sales of goods and services. Stepped-up operations began on June 19 and will continue until June 25.

He stated that the agency was working with numerous organisations to increase tourists’ confidence in visiting Pattaya.

Gen Saksira spent time on the famed Walking Street speaking with officers on duty and assigned them to seek for members of ten criminal groups known to operate in Pattaya.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin will visit Chon Buri on Saturday to assess the tourism situation. He intends to visit the site of a future Formula One racecourse near Khao Phra Tamnak in Bang Lamung District.

Prime Minister Srettha recently met with Formula One organisers in Italy to examine the potential of including Thailand on the race schedule in the future.

On Sunday, the Prime Minister will pay a visit to Rayong’s U-tapao airport to discuss development on the airport’s land, with the goal of encouraging investment in the Eastern Economic Corridor.

Police Chief Reinstated

In other police news, Pol Gen Torsak Sukvimol has been reinstated as national police chief following the conclusion of an investigation into a highly publicised quarrel, according to Wissanu Krea-ngam, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s counsellor.

Mr Wissanu released the investigation’s findings on Thursday, after the prime minister formed a fact-finding committee chaired by Chatchai Promlert to investigate into the quarrel between Pol Gen Torsak and his deputy, Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn.

The four-month study revealed conflicts and disorder at all levels of the Royal Thai Police, but it was unclear whether these issues arose from a single cause or several causes, according to Mr Wissanu.

The findings revealed that both Pol Gen Torsak and Pol Gen Surachate were involved, with each team contributing to the tensions, he noted.

Mr Wissanu indicated that Pol Gen Surachate was reinstated as deputy national police head on 18 April following his relocation to the Prime Minister’s Office on 20 March. A disciplinary committee was formed to investigate Pol Gen Surachate, and he was ordered temporarily suspended from the police force.

Because there were no further difficulties to explore, it was decided to restore Pol Gen Torsak. He plans to retire on September 30.

On March 20, Mr Srettha abruptly transferred both top police officers to the Prime Minister’s Office in an effort to address the growing schism within the police service.

Kitrat Panphet, Deputy National Police Chief, was subsequently named Acting Police Chief. According to sources, Pol Gen Surachate could face money laundering charges related to online gaming networks.

Source: Bangkok Post