Phuket ‘red card’ system gets nod, other provinces to decide for themselves

However, the system is not to be deployed nationwide by policy, Phuket Immigration Chief Pol Col Thanet Sukchai told The Phuket News today (Mar 7).

Col Thanet flew to Bangkok late last week to discuss the new system with Lt Gen Pakpoompipat after the system was announced by Pol Maj Gen Praphansak Prasansuk, Commander of the Immigration Region 6 office, which oversees Immigration affairs in Phuket, at a press conference last week (Mar 1). 

“The Immigration Bureau commissioner agrees with the idea, but the system is not to be ordered to apply in other areas,” Col Thanet said.

“The commissioner acknowledged the system and said it was good. For other provinces, it will depend on other local immigration offices to decide whether they would like to adapt the system to their areas or not,” Col Thanet added.

“This system adds more work for Phuket immigration officers, by issuing the yellow and red cards, so we cannot expect other areas to do the same as Phuket. It is a lot of extra work,” he said.

“It is like a school that is mindful of its students. They do not just call the parents only once and expel the student right away for making trouble. We still tell them what must not be done and give them a chance,” he explained.

Col Thanet noted that in some provinces immigration officers do not give even a single warning to “trouble-makers” before revoking their permit to stay for just the first offense.

“Some other places do not even warn you. The immigration office revokes the permit to stay immediately when a foreigner is caught behaving inappropriately,” he said.

“In Chonburi, foreigners rode motorcycles and made trouble disturbing people. The immigration office revoked their permits to stay right away without warning.

“Chonburi immigration did not give the chance to talk and inform them that their behaviour had disturbed the public and filed a warning to the embassy, as we do here,” he added.

A meeting will be called soon to explain the system to diplomatic staff and honorary consuls on the island, Col Thanet said.

“In the past when immigration revoked permits to stay of foreigners, there was no news of it reported, so no one knew what would happen if their behavior affected the peace of living of others,” Col Thanet said today**.

“After the news [of the new card system] was released, embassies and consuls questioned why we had to give the cards, so when the Governor returns to Phuket we will arrange a meeting with them. The date should be the middle or end of this month,” Col Thanet added.

“The consular representatives will also have to explain why they let the people from their countries continuously make trouble,” he said.

“The [card] system will nurture foreigners to understand how they should live in Phuket.” Col Thanet concluded.

** The Phuket News notes that Thai and English media in Phuket for decades have had a very strong record of reporting foreigners being deported when the news is made public.