The Banglamung Police punished a number of Chinese visitors for failing to inform the immigration office of their lodging.
Today, April 23, Banglamung Police and Immigration searched two homes owned by Chinese tourists in the Takhian Tia sub-district of Banglamung district, Chonburi, after learning that some residents had disobeyed immigration office rules.
Two Thai people and one Chinese woman lived in the first residence. The occupants’ passports and visas were checked by the police, who discovered that they were valid and that they had not broken any rules.
However, it was discovered that Mr. Xi Ye, 29, Mr. Jiao Jiangcheng, 28, and Mr. Li Jinlu, 34, all had valid passports and visas when they were found to be living in the second house, which was occupied by 3 Chinese men and 1 Thai woman. Despite this, they had broken immigration rules by failing to notify the immigration office of their place of residence. As a result, they were taken into detention and each given a 4,000 baht fine before being let free.
The operation was carried out under the supervision of Pol.Gen. Surachet Hakparn, also known as Big Joke, the deputy national police head.Big Joke has vowed to maintain a stern crackdown on Chinese nationals living illegally in Thailand or running illicit businesses. This came after a number of well-publicized kidnapping and ransom incidents involving primarily Chinese citizens, such the one that occurred just a few days earlier.
Big Joke has vowed to strictly enforce this law, especially for Chinese nationals, despite the fact that tourists frequently choose not to report their domicile to immigration. According to him and the Thai police, enforcing this law serves to make Thailand safer overall and deters crime.
