Close to 2,000 illegal foreigners in Phuket not deported

Phuket Police Commander, Pol Maj Gen Teerapon Thipcharoln has revealed that about 1,730 cases of illegal foreigners in Phuket ‘discovered’ by local police from many police stations across Phuket were not handed to Phuket Immigration Office and the cases are being investigated.

The total criminal cases where foreigners were arrested from October 2016 – October 2017 is 2,415 people with only 685 of them sent to immigration for further processing and potential deportation.

Earlier estimates from the report from October 1, 2016 – October 31, 2017 showed that there were only 142 foreigners in criminal cases who were charged but not sent to the immigration.

The Deputy National Police Chief Gen Srivara Ransibrahmanakul issued an urgent command last Friday that the results from the investigation must be completed before November 15 and has requested a follow up report every 7 days beyond that.

A committee has been set up following the command from The Royal Thai Police to Provincial Police Region 8 who is chairing the investigation into the Phuket police involved in mishandling immigration cases.

“There are many factors about these illegal foreigner cases and we will have to look into each case thoroughly. We still can’t confirm that all cases are involved with corruption or not,” said Pol Maj Gen Teerapon.

“Some cases only have fines such as riding motorbike without helmet/license or drink and drive. For these cases, the foreigners were fined and released back and there is no need to send them to the immigration.”