Thai police arrest gang of Chinese visa overstayers in Bangkok

Thailand’s Immigration Police arrested a gang of Chinese visa overstayers in the Chatuchak district of Bangkok yesterday.

On Monday, North Bangkok District Court issued a search warrant for a property in Soi Sermsuk to investigate a group of “suspicious aliens.”

Officers from the Immigration Bureau searched the property yesterday and found that seven Chinese nationals were staying there. All seven had visas, but five were out of date. Police didn’t say how long they had the five had overstayed in the kingdom.

Police arrested four of the Chinese nationals under suspicion of, “being a foreigner staying in the kingdom without permission,” and revoked the permission of the fifth suspect, also a Chinese national, to stay in the kingdom. All five suspects were detained and deported.

Immigration police revealed the nationality of the suspects despite orders to no longer reveal the nationalities of foreign suspects to the media.

On Saturday, the Royal Thai Police (RTP) issued an urgent order via police radio calling on all provincial police bureaus in the country to ensure that the nationality of suspects was no longer revealed to the media, “for fear that sensationalist reports will hurt international ties, ” reports The Nation.

The nationality of foreign criminals found guilty by a court could be released publicly, according to the RTP spokesperson.

Thai police have never previously had a problem with identifying suspects by nationality. It’s almost as if the Thai government has faced pressure to stop embarrassing a nation whose nationals keep getting caught committing crimes in Thailand.

On Sunday, Immigration Police in Phuket arrested a 35 year old Pakistani man who overstayed his visa in Thailand for almost nine years (3,270 days).

On the same day, Phuket Immigration arrested a 44 year old man of Indian nationality who overstayed his visa in Thailand by 1,322 days.

Both overstayers were taken to Patong Police Station to be charged before deportation.

Perhaps the Immigration Bureau did not listen to the RTP’s radio announcement on Saturday.