Sex, lies and seaside sweeps: Pattaya cops accused of cover up
Pattaya cops are under fire after a recent crackdown on foreign sex workers along Pattaya Beach was branded a “PR stunt” by furious locals and expats, who say Thai officials are ignoring the city’s deeper problems while putting on a show for the cameras.
On December 26, a joint operation between Pattaya Tourist Police, Chon Buri Immigration, and the Social Development and Human Security Office saw 20 foreign women, including Ugandans, Uzbeks, Madagascans and a Rwandan, arrested and charged under prostitution laws after allegedly soliciting tourists on the beach.
Then, on May 8, in a dramatic follow-up dubbed the “Soi Phee Maprao” operation (or Coconut Tree Sweep), over 50 officers patrolled the beachfront and detained 13 more women, mainly from Eastern Europe and Africa, again accused of selling sex. Officials claimed the raids were part of a wider plan to “restore Pattaya’s image” as a family-friendly tourist spot.
Pattaya Mail reported that the response from the public has been scathing.
“Just a big show they put on once in a while… not really about sweeping it all away. Just the non-Thai ‘commerce’,” one Pattaya resident said online. “The Thai business ladies are still… in business.”
Another fumed, “Total hypocrisy in the Kingdom of Make-believe. Prostitution is Pattaya’s middle name.”
Critics say the real problem isn’t just sex workers on the beach, but the double standard in enforcement and the rampant environmental neglect that continues to blight the city. While foreign freelancers are rounded up in high-profile swoops, Walking Street’s bars, go-gos and ‘massage’ joints remain untouched.
Meanwhile, the beachfront is said to be slipping into squalor, with plastic bags, foam containers, cigarette butts and general filth scattered across the sand. Despite threats of fines and promises of cleaner public spaces, enforcement remains lax and the beach is increasingly described as “a free hotel for Indian tourism” and “no place for families anymore.”
“Shadowy is everywhere. You can’t pretend you’re a world-class destination while only going after the freelancers and leaving the rest untouched,” one observer said.
With Pattaya’s reputation long cemented as one of the world’s most notorious adult playgrounds, some believe the city should own its identity rather than feign reform. Others insist that if real change is to come, it must start with consistent enforcement and genuine efforts to clean up more than just the foreigners.
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Thailand is far from a ‘family destination’. Imagine a family arriving in Bangkok before moving on to a more ‘family orientated’ destination such as Krabi, Phuket, Pattaya – anywhere easily reached by bus or plane. Streets in Bangkok lined with dildo and kamagra sellers, African drug dealers literally metres away from a police box, freelancers, drunks and horrendous motorbikes and tuktuks taring chaotically down sukhumvit, drug shops everywhere, the smell of weed everywhere – of course they can’t wait to get their family out of there and never go back. Then they move on to somewhere hopefully a bit nicer. Krabi is probably okay actually but the rest – would I take my family to any of these places? Absolutely not. Not if it was free. The problem for Thailand is, as all of these foreign sexpats start dropping like flies – and they will – is there a pipeline of new sexpats to take their place? It has to inevitable that younger people will prefer up and coming, more authentic destinations like Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia – anyone who brings their family to a drug and sex fuelled country like Thailand will be in for a sad awakening. The authentic SE Asian experience is dead there (unless they go to some sleepy town like Kanchanburi, Pai, Nan, Phitsanulok. Even Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai can be saved and promoted to families before they descend into the same seedy cesspit environment Pattaya and Phuket have become. Close the weed shops, shut down the unscrupulous massage places and protect the Thai towns that can still be saved. Create a campaign to attract families to those places. Phuket and Pattaya are beyond help.