Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha said today (April 30) that he was afraid of the possibility that a concert planned for tomorrow in Thalang District would turn out to be “harmful rather than entertaining.”
He said he had been told that the organisers of the concert had sold more than 10,000 tickets, even though permission for the event had not been granted.
The governor said that this would be a large gathering of Burmese and might deteriorate into brawls between immigrant gangs.
The other application came from a group of Mon migrant workers, who applied for permission to stage concerts at Thungtong fresh market over three nights, from Saturday until today (April 28-30).
The superintendent of Thungtong Police Station, Pol Col Kraitong Jantongbai, said the group told police they expected 6,000 to 10,000 people to come to the event. This sparked police concern about security, and they turned down the application.
In recent years, a number of crimes related to immigrant workers have been reported on media. The most notorious involved fatal fights between Burmese, or murders by Burmese of other Burmese.
Police have found it hard to track down the perpetrators because of the large number of Burmese who have entered Thailand illegally and are therefore not documented.
Gov Tri also noted regulations that restrict immigrant workers from gathering after 8pm. The regulations are in place to give authorities greater ability to control migrant workers.
In Phuket’s history, no concert proposal by Burmese organisers has ever been granted permission.