Report: Thai nationals to be caned for overstaying in Brunei

I really hope Thai's don't follow this model for foreigners that overstay here in Thailand!

 

 

I saw this article on Bangkok Coconuts, they have just opened a discussion on their forum that may be interesting. Enjoy the article.

Two Thai men have reportedly been sentenced to “strokes of the cane” for overstaying their visas in Brunei without reasonable causes.

Sombat Chamnanrop, 44, was sentenced to six months in jail and three cane strokes, while Phaisan Saensimon, aged 32, was sentence to three months in jail and three cane strokes.
 

The Bandar Seri Begawan Magistrate's Court sentenced the two men yesterday, the Borneo Bulletin reported, after all defendants pleaded guilty to overstaying in the country without reasonable causes.

The two men were apprehended along with Thai female Sirithip

Champasaeng during a raid in the morning of May 22, 2013 at the male defendants' rented home in Kg Kilanas.

Sombat was reportedly found to be a fugitive employee and earned a living on a freelance basis with an employment pass that expired on December 3, 2008.

Meanwhile, Phaisan worked until his employment pass was cancelled and was due for repatriation on October 31, 2012 but he failed to leave the country.

As for Sirithip, she was found to have been issued a special pass initially and told to report to the Immigration Department but failed to do so.

She was sentenced to three months and a week's imprisonment for the offense of overstaying.

90 Day check in at Chonburi Pattaya Immigration

Thailand has a 90 day check in rule for all foreigners residing in the kingdom. Is Chonburi Pattaya immigration really ready to handle the growing foreigner population?

The new immigration office has now been open in Jomtien Beach for a few years now, having moved from its old location Pattaya Beach Rd soi 8.

This new building and location was set up to be a bigger and more efficient office. In reality it is about a 100 square meter building with very limited parking and limited capacity to properly handle the various departments needed to handle the many different immigration issues concerning foreigners.  I'm not quite sure how such a small building will be able to cope in the future with a few looming challenges...

1. The growing number of tourists coming for longer periods of time and therefore needing visa extensions.
2. The growing number of retirees moving here and now needing to check in every 90 days
3. With the growing industry here in Pattaya Jomtien areas there are far more foreign workers also needing to re issue visas and do their required check ins.  

 I showed up today for my check in at 1:00PM, i had a few errands to run in the morning so i could not be there when the doors opened. The place was so over crowded it took a few minutes just to be able to enter. It was another 10 minutes of waiting in line just to get the proper form to fill out and another few minutes just to be able to hand it back in. Once i was assigned a number, i saw there were about 12 people ahead of me in the queue. I thought for sure i would be there all afternoon, i was totally surprised to see that i was done and out the door in 15 minutes!

The 90 day check in is free. All you need is a copy of your passport, visa, and tm arrival card. No photos, bank statements, etc. All the immigration officer does is look at the form, hit it with a half dozen stamps, tear off the bottom and staple it in your passport. 

With the ability to check in for a flight on line, download and file your taxes on line i find it hard to believe there can not be a similar process for foreigners to check in. I was number 397 today. Just for that department. Now i am not sure if i was the 397th person to do a 90 day check in here in the Pattaya Jomtien office but by the looks of things there was sure to have been more than 100. What if the local immigration offices could reduce the number of people they needed to serve and increase the space available for other more complicated matters, would that be a possible solution to an obviously growing problem?

Good news for Pattaya and Jomtien as Thailands tourist numbers continue to rise!

The report is out and the number of Thailands tourists has seen an increase of 8% in the fiscal year between Sept /30 /2011 and Sept /30/2012. It is estimated that Thailand has seen 15 million tourists enter the Kingdom so far this year, with an expected 20 million by years end according to a statement made by Suwat Sidthilaw. This Thailands Ministry permanent - secretary.

Despite some bad publicity of crime in Pattaya and Phuket including jet ski scams and crooked taxi drivers, tourism continues to thrive. Thailand has seen its fair share of obstacles over the years from tsunamis, political unstability, and flooding, yet still holds strong.

Thailand continues to work to solve runway problems and slow immigration queues at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport but with the opening of the old Don Mueang Airport and plans to further commercialise Pattaya's Utapao it looks like things are getting better.

Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi's new expansion to come at tourists and travellers expense

If you read our last post you saw the article i reported on from "The Nation" regarding upcoming improvements to the airport. It now seems we the travellers and tourists, business men etc will be paying for these improvements.

The AOT is hiking up fees for domestic flights to 150Bt from the previous 100Bt. In addition international flight will now have a 800Bt service charge compared to the previous 700Bt.

"The Nation" have published the following article in this mornings paper:

NONGNAPAS MAIPANIT
THE NATION
September 29, 2012 1:00 am

 

Air travellers will have to pay more for passenger service at Suvarnabhumi Airport after operator Airports of Thailand announced plans to increase the charges next year.

However, AOT also plans to invest up to Bt5 billion in developing facilities at the airport in a bid to ease congestion.

Somchai Sawasdeepon, director of Suvarnabhumi Airport, said yesterday that the passenger service charge for international flights would be increased to Bt800 from the current Bt700 while that for domestic flights would be raised to Bt150 from Bt100 currently.

"Though the number of passengers has grown by an average of 8-9 per cent annually, we don't expect traffic jams at Suvarnabhumi Airport, as some airlines have moved to provide services from Don Mueang Airport," he said. AOT expects the number of passengers at Suvarnabhumi next year will decline to 45 million, compared with an estimated 52.6 million this year. The main reason is that Thai AirAsia, an airline that carries 10 million passengers a year, has relocated to provide services from Don Mueang.

He said Suvarnabhumi would restore some space on the terminal's fourth floor for use by passengers. The airport also targets luggage-loading times not exceeding 20 minutes.

Somchai said AOT planned to invest up to Bt5 billion on developing facilities in the airport such as luggage conveyors (Bt1.8 billion), air-conditioning improvements (Bt677 million), computer network (Bt334 million) and rest-room improvement (Bt100 million).

In addition, AOT is proceeding with Suvarnabhumi Airport's second-phase construction, requiring an investment of Bt62 billion to enable traffic of 60 million passengers a year, up from 45 million currently.

Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi airport to catch up with modern times?

The debacle better know as Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi airport -- aka "Swampy" -- has finally realised  it needs to catch up with modern times and be able to properly cope with the yearly increases in travellers coming in and out. This  may finally begin to improve its image.

Word is they are hiring 250 more immigration officers to help speed up entrance into the kingdom. Also they are setting a minimum of 20 minutes after a flight parks for the first bag to come out from the carousel.

If that isn't enough to get excited about they are in the process of implementing 15-30 minutes of free wifi service in the terminals. That's right a whopping 15-30 minutes free....at least its a start :). This is what i gather after reading this article i found on "Thai Visa" listed below.

BANGKOK, Sept 29 – Suvarnabhumi Airport hopes to see great improvement in immigration checks, baggage claims and internet service soon to cope with the increasing passenger load next year, airport director Somchai Sawasdeepon said yesterday.

The international airport will have 180 less flights or 10 million less passengers each day after budget airline Thai AirAsia relocates to Don Mueang airport on Monday.

Mr Somchai said 250 more immigration officials will be on duty at Suvarnabhumi airport to accelerate visa inspections, and reduce the process from 50 minutes per passenger to 20 minutes.

Passengers will find it more convenient with the visa checking areas three times larger while baggage claims must be finished within 30 minutes after a flight lands, with the first baggage delivered to a carousel in 20 minutes, Mr Somchai said, adding that a 15-30 minute free wi-fi service will also be available.

Suvarnabhumi airport served 48.32 million passengers between Oct 2011 and August this year, a 9.65 per cent increase year-on-year. It is estimated that the total number will be 52.6 million passengers, or 301,477 flight, at the end of this fiscal year on Sunday Sept 30.  It predicted an 8-9 per cent growth next year with a major increase in passengers from China, Malaysia and India.

Airports of Thailand (AoT) has planned a second-phase development project of Suvarnabhumi with an investment of Bt65 billion to cope with 60 million passengers by 2017. (MCOT online news)

International arrivals to Thailand remain strong

 The global economy slowdown has had little impact on tourist arrivals to Thailand. The Kingdom had a total of 8,871,930 visitor arrivals for the period of January through May 2012, up 7.27% compared to the same period in 2011. China was the best performer with 943,161 visitors, up 26.13% with the largest market share for an individual country of 10.63%.


The overall growth remains strong for Thai tourism with visitor arrivals to Thailand from all European countries of 2,690,783, a 10.9% increase for the period January through May 2012, according to the latest figures released by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. European countries, even with the Eurozone crisis, accounted for a market share of 30.33%, up from 29.33% for the same period in 2011. Read more...

Busy Day!

It is has been a very busy mornig so far. We now have Khun Sa added as admin for us on Facebook, she will be handling the entire Thai side of things.
We have also been training up a new staff member. We have gotten alot of support from friends on Facebook so would like to thank them very much.
There has also been alot of interest in this particular 3 rai piece of land we have listed. Please visit Pattaya Realestate Market for details

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