Expats

Video catches Thai immigration officials asking for a bribe

Published

Wednesday, July 22, 2020 11:41

PHOTO: Police Colonel Kritsana Pattanacharoen - Line.me

Officers from an immigration office near Bangkok have been “suspended” after a Facebook video showed an immigration official asking for money to help “speed up his visa process”. The cation read… “This is real, such a shame, when will the cheating stop”.

“Thailand is good, foreigners get Visas to work in the country. They go to the Nonthaburi Immigration for the application. The papers were submitted and the officer told the foreigner that if he wanted the application to be completed fast then it would cost 20,000 baht. The officer then put the money in his pocket.”

“Nonthaburi Immigration should stop cheating the country and foreigners”.

Immigration officials now say they have set up an investigating committee to look into the incident involving the 2 Nonthaburi Immigration officials. Police Colonel Kritsana Pattanacharoen noted that, if the 2 officers are shown to be guilty then they will be dealt “disciplinary actions”.

“The people must be able to rely on the police and officials must not act like thieves by using their power in the wrong way.”

The current situation, despite the visa amenities, has put a lot of foreigners in difficult situations, with their visas lapsing, some unable to return home, losing their source of income in Thailand, or worrying about possibly overstaying their visas.

The Thaiger has received a number of anecdotal complaints about similar incidents where immigration officials have asked for a financial offering in return for less paperwork and complications at the immigration offices around Thailand.

SOURCE: Thai Residents | Khaosod

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10 Comments

Toby Andrews

Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 12:02 pm

Are they in jail?
Are they still working in immigration?
Will disciplinary action just mean moving them to another office?
Immigration officials set up a committee to investigate? Well they should make their decision by the end of the day. The evidence is overwhelming.
But they will not. They will deliberate for months and quietly move the guilty persons to another office when everyone has forgotten about it.
The police should investigate this, not immigration.

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- IronButtaxe
  
  Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 4:16 pm
  
  Yeah but on the bright side if you have the money you can get things done – like every other country in the world.
  
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- willy tan
  
  Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 5:24 pm
  
  U are So correct toby, over at my place here. Immigration officer Would ask for money, Gift such as durian etc everytime i do my visa. They take whatever they can. But recently i have a worker from china Whose visa is going to expired in 4days time, i went to immigration to Ask them for renewal, But they Just keep saying “Oh time is too short to process Now and Nothing Can be done. I Just have to wait till his visa expired, anyway thai government has Already given grant till july 31st. So After That then they c how. This is the answer they give. Really very dissapointing
  
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Das

Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 2:04 pm

And the 20,000B? Whose got that fat packet in their pocket?

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frank

Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 7:03 pm

This is what one can expect when these people are paid so poorly, when I was using a land border crossing, there they even tried to screw me for another 2,000 Baht, it’s sad that these people have to go “Begging” to supplement their income by asking for extra, give them a decent respectable salary!

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Adam Rich

Thursday, July 23, 2020 at 1:03 am

Did they at least try to bargain? Or did they take the first price as the final price? I would have gotten him down to 1000 baht to expedite mine.

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Toby Andrews

Thursday, July 23, 2020 at 10:40 am

Frank has a point. I did not realise how little they earn.
Top immigration officers are on not much more than £300 a week.
Average wage is about £6.30 an hour.

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- Das
  
  Thursday, July 23, 2020 at 9:41 pm
  
  Sarcasm needs a /s tag else folk will think you’re serious.
  
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Jimbo

Friday, July 24, 2020 at 10:57 am

Some of that 20K will go to his superiors. So the only action that will happen will be his boss telling everyone to be more careful next time. I know from experience that the by-the-book bureaucratic system doesn’t work. If bribes were eliminated then no one would get their visa on time, or even at all!

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Hiro Wasita

Saturday, July 25, 2020 at 6:08 am

Doesnt matter what the salary is for the officer,the hassle will continue for ever in this country.And in this covid Times it will be everywere. Thais is like this
Thai rak tang and only that

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