Another Dutch national arrested in Phuket for illegally entering Thailand
A Dutch national was arrested in Phuket for illegally entering and staying in Thailand, on the same day that another citizen of the Netherlands was arrested in Phuket for the same crime.
The Immigration Office at Phuket International Airport said that over the past weekend, it arrested a 61 year old Dutchman. The man was apprehended at the Immigration checkpoint at the airport’s International Departure Terminal on Saturday, March 25, at around 9am.
The authorities brought the man to Sakhu Police Station to face charges of entering and staying in the country without a permit.
It is unclear how the man originally entered Thailand.
On the same day, a 28 year old Dutch woman was arrested at Phuket International Airport on the weekend for entering and staying in Thailand without permission or a visa.
The unnamed woman was taken to Sakhu Police Station to face charges of entering and staying in Thailand illegally. As was the case with the man, it was unclear how the woman managed to enter the kingdom.
Under Phuket Immigration’s new yellow and red card system for bad foreigners, first-time foreign offenders in Phuket will receive a yellow card and repeat offenders will receive a red card, leading to their deportation.
Red cards void the foreigner’s visa, but since the Dutch woman didn’t have a visa, her offence was still a deportable one – even if it was her first.
According to Phuket Immigration, most of the criminal foreigners come from Russia, France, the UK, Myanmar and Cambodia.
Should Phuket see success with its red and yellow card system, the policy may be expanded to other tourist hotspots such as Pattaya, Chiang Mai, and Koh Samui – where foreigners are also partial to misbehaving.
In the past few months, a few foreigners have been busted in Phuket after illegally entering and staying in Thailand.
On February 28, immigration officers busted an Indian man and a Russian man, who entered and stayed in Thailand without permits, at Phuket International Airport.
On February 8, immigration police caught a Kazakhstani overstayer with fake passport stamps at Phuket International Airport. Authorities charged the woman, 27 year old Xeniya Kopeikina, with using counterfeit documents, as well as overstaying her visa in the country for 89 days.
