Oprettet af yindee d. 23-02-2010 06:26
#1
Early this month, a 35-year-old Singaporean man lined up to have his passport stamped as yet another of the millions of tourists who enter the country each year. A few days later, police in Hat Yai were handcuffing Lok Chong Meng after they seized 32 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine, the harmful and illegal drug known on the street as "ice".
Lok was the latest in the sudden spate of high-profile cases of foreigners who have entered the country in order to enhance their own criminal careers at the expense of Thailand and Thai people. Immigration Bureau chief Wuthi Liptapallop has vowed to end this serial abuse of traditional Thai hospitality. It will be a tough job but worthwhile and worth seeing to a conclusion.
In the last decade or more, Thailand has gained a certain reputation among criminals, gangsters and mafia-type gang members worldwide. They see our country as a simple victim, a nation easy to exploit because of the relatively open borders, the 50-year policy to encourage tourism. Worse, they have come to believe that the traditional Thai smile and the cultural practice of welcoming visitors is a sign of weakness. So foreign criminals of many types have landed in our country with the specific aim of sneering at the Thai welcome and ignoring Thai laws.
In the past two weeks, Immigration authorities have tracked down a British man accused of embezzling $150 million from a company in Dubai, a Belgian gang member who fled 14 criminal charges in his country, and a notorious member of the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) who faces charges of cold-blooded murder in his country. They shared several perverted beliefs. Boiled down, these three men and scores of others like them believe that Thailand can provide them with asylum from justice.
The three fugitives will be disabused of that notion, and removed from this country. But it is undeniable that around the world and inside the country there are many other criminal and undesirable elements who feel that not only are they safe from punishment for previous acts, but they can continue their criminal acts here. Paedophiles still apparently see Thailand as a country where their perversion is tolerated. Foreign drug dealers, particularly from Africa and Latin America, actually recruit couriers and peddlers.
Terrorists have also entered Thailand, as the 2003 capture of Hambali of the Jemaah Islamiyah illustrated. Other al-Qaeda terrorists used Bangkok as a meeting place to plan part of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Con men peddling worthless stocks and international credit-card thieves have apparently concluded that Thailand is some sort of safe haven, and authorities have admitted that this country has become a worldwide centre of passport counterfeiting and a transit point for human traffickers.
Pol Lt Gen Wuthi has pledged that all of this will change. That is excellent news. Thailand certainly will not miss a few dozen or a few hundred mean, criminal and violent would-be tourists. The commissioner has identified major centres of foreign criminal presence as Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Koh Samui and Phuket. He should waste no more time changing the immigration system to halt and reject entry by criminals at every border, and to root out and expel those who are already here.
Thailand welcomes all honest visitors, and no foreign criminals. That is a message that should be broadcast widely.
gode nyheder fra http://www.bangko...ot-welcome
Redigeret af yindee d. 23-02-2010 06:27