Thai tourist police arrest 20 foreign sex workers on Pattaya Beach
Thai tourist police officers arrested 20 foreign sex workers for illegally working and offering sexual services on Pattaya Beach in the early hours of today.
Officers from the Pattaya Tourist Office announced the crackdown on foreign sex workers to the public. They revealed that the arrests were made at about 1am today following complaints from both locals and tourists in Pattaya.
Complainants reported to the tourist police that foreign women wearing revealing clothing were loitering along Pattaya Beach and conversing with male beachgoers. Suspecting these foreigners of engaging in illegal prostitution, they sought police intervention.
Officers visited the area and encountered 20 foreign sex workers, aged between 26 and 51, soliciting clients along the beach. They were arrested and taken to the police station for questioning.
Among those arrested, nine were from Uganda, eight from Uzbekistan, two from Madagascar, and one from Rwanda.
All the suspects admitted to engaging in illegal prostitution and were charged under Section 5 of the Act on Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution. This section criminalises contracting, inviting, introducing, or following individuals in public for prostitution, with penalties including a fine of 1,000 baht.
In a related incident reported in November, officers from the Phuket Immigration Control Centre (PICC) arrested four sex workers from Uganda and Tanzania for illegally offering their services on Bangla Road in Phuket.
The public expressed appreciation for the police operation and urged them to extend their investigations into sex workers from Russia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Additionally, in the same month, a brawl broke out between two groups of Uzbek sex workers on Pattaya Beach. The altercation reportedly arose from disputes over territorial boundaries for soliciting clients. Police recorded their details and criminal activities before releasing them.
In another recent case on December 25, a French man reported to a Phuket news Facebook page that he lost €6,000 (approximately 210,000 baht) to a foreign woman he met in the Patong area of Phuket. CCTV footage captured the woman leaving his hotel room with the cash.
As of now, the foreign sex worker remains at large. There has been no report on whether the French victim has pursued legal action against her.
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