Suvarnabhumi Airport immigration police accused of using spoils system

A police officer from the Immigration Bureau accused Suvarnabhumi Airport Immigration Office of using the spoils system to benefit some officers. He claims that a large number of airport immigration police have been transferred to other posts despite the airport being crowded and understaffed.

One immigration police officer reached out to a Facebook page, Moon Rabbit V3 (พระจันทร์ ลายกระต่าย V3), urging them to expose the spoils system within the Suvarnabhumi Airport Immigration Office to the public. The police officer said…

“Hi, admin. Have you ever heard that Suvarnabhumi Airport is very crowded with travellers and is facing a shortage of staff? The bureau commissioner solved the problem by moving 120 immigration police from across the country to work at the airport. No one wanted to move, but we have to.”

The officer went on to say…

“We travelled a long way to support the officers here, but those officers were then transferred to other posts. We did not want to move to work here, but we did it and did our best. Those were moved out, so the issue of staff shortage remained. The commissioner does not care about the overloaded work and only focused on benefiting those officers.”

The officer who complained also sent the official document he received to the Facebook page’s admin to prove that he and other officers were officially transferred to support the team at the airport.

He also added that immigration police at Suvarnabhumi Airport were not allowed to relocate according to the legal announcement made by the commissioner.

The Deputy Commander of the Royal Thai Police (RTP), Roy Ingpairoj, reported that relevant departments will investigate the issue to determine the truth of the officer’s claims. If the claims are true, measures to solve the issue and punishment will be immediately implemented.

Last month, the RTP reported that they uncovered a visa scam with 110 officers from the Immigration Bureau involved. The Deputy Commander of the RTP, Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn, revealed that those officers illegally offered visas to foreigners, especially Chinese investors.

Big Joke also reassured the public that these corrupt officers represent only a small fraction of the over 20,000 immigration police in Thailand and that the exposure of these officers was a positive development allowing the bureau to improve.