Police will carefully check Chinese visitors with facial and body disfiguration, as some had come here to beg on the streets, possibly organised by Thais.

Police said on Wednesday that from Nov 10-20 police arrested six disfigured Chinese beggars and fined three of them 100-500 baht.

The Immigration Bureau would blacklist the six from returning to the country for 10 years.

The six told police the scars on their faces and bodies were caused by fire in China. They refused to give more information.

Police said some of the beggars had the same Thai translator. Two of them shared a hotel room in Wang Thonglang district of Bangkok and the four others stayed separately at other hotels in the capital.

Police suspected the Chinese beggars were members of a gang and Thais supervised and accommodated them.

One of the six Chinese beggars, a woman, arrived by air in June on a tourist visa. The woman later applied for online education in Thailand and sought a student visa, which extended her stay.

The six Chinese begged in crowded places and tourist destinations and each earned about 10,000 baht a day.

From now on, police would be carefully checking Chinese visitors with facial and body disfiguration to prevent them from begging.

The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security said officials found 7,161 beggars.

Of them, 4,688 were Thais and 2,473 foreigners, mostly from Cambodia and Myanmar, and were members of organised gangs.