Authorities in Pattaya launched a campaign to rid the city’s popular tourist district of beggars, and they unexpectedly discovered a large number of foreigners living there illegally.
According to deputy mayor of Pattaya Wutthisak Ruemkijjakarn, the city crackdown took place on Wednesday night while being observed by numerous law enforcement officials. This comprised representatives from the Immigration Bureau, the local Pattaya police, the Provincial Police Region 2, and the Social Development and Human Security Office of Chon Buri.
Numerous begging places were the focus of the Pattaya crackdown raids. According to Wutthisak, one of these spots was the famous Pattaya Walking Street, where authorities captured two people as part of the operation. Wutthisak also emphasized the city’s noticeably recent rise in beggars.The Soi Buakhao neighborhood was caught up in the Pattaya crackdown authorities’ extensive search, and there they came across a 42-year-old Vietnamese woman. This woman had been attempting to sell flowers to visitors while being accompanied by a young child of seven. She told the authorities that this had been her daily routine for the previous five months and that she had been earning between 300 and 500 baht each evening.
In South Pattaya, meantime, similar scenes played out when police officers rounded up beggars from the beach area who were observed soliciting money from unwary tourists. One of them was a 34-year-old Cambodian woman who was discovered in the street with her 5-month-old daughter in front of Wat Chai Mongkhon.The Pattaya police commander, Thanapong Pothi, oversaw a significant operation earlier this month, notably on June 10, with the goal of apprehending people responsible for child exploitation in the form of forced begging or the sale of goods within the city.
During this mission, a 33-year-old Cambodian mother and her three children were discovered residing in a small one-room apartment. She admitted to officials that she had entered Thailand illegally in search of work. Her case, which involved accusations of child exploitation and illegal entry, came to symbolize the larger problem at hand during this Pattaya enforcement operation.
