66 Chinese held for overstaying visas

Police and immigration officers inspect a resort in Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri where they found 66 Chinese nationals who had overstayed their visas. (Photo: Chaiyot Pupattanapong)
Police and immigration officers inspect a resort in Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri where they found 66 Chinese nationals who had overstayed their visas. (Photo: Chaiyot Pupattanapong)

Sixty-six Chinese nationals from 16 families have been detained for overstaying their visas following a police raid on a resort in Bang Lamung district, Chon Buri, on Friday.

A team of police, immigration officers and local officials visited the Long Lake Hillside Resort after learning that many Chinese nationals were staying there.

The officers found 32 adults, 31 youths aged below 15 and three children from 16 families. They were holding Chinese passports and some had expired cards from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

It was not known how they had obtained the cards and they were not claiming refugee status, a source said. Some of the children had birth certificates purportedly issued by a hospital in Bangkok.

Most of those held had overstayed in the country for less than one year and some had overstayed for only a month. All of them were taken to the police station before deportation.

Deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn earlier met with immigration and tourist police in Pattaya to ask them to crack down on illegal migrant workers and foreign nationals who have been staying in the country illegally.

The request follows months of revelations that hundreds of wealthy Chinese businesspeople have managed to obtain visas through foundations or educational organisations, many of them set up with the help of corrupt immigration police.

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Vocabulary

  • corrupt (adj.): (people) willing to use their power to do dishonest or illegal things in return for money or to get an advantage - (ผู้)ทุจริต, (ผู้)โกง
  • crack down on: to start dealing with someone or something much more strictly - จัดการ, ลงมือปราบปราม
  • deportation: the process of forcing someone to leave a country, especially someone who has no legal right to be there or who has broken the law - การเนรเทศออกจากประเทศ
  • expire: to come to an end or stop being in use - หมดอายุ
  • immigration: dealing with people entering and leaving the country - การตรวจคนเข้าเมือง
  • migrant worker: someone who travels to another place or country in order to find work - คนงานต่างถิ่น
  • national: a citizen of a particular country - ประชาชน
  • official: someone with an important position in an organisation - เจ้าหน้าที่
  • overstay: stay in a country for longer than you are allowed to stay, not leaving when your visa to stay in the country ends -
  • purportedly: said by some people to be real or true, but not proved to be real or true - ซึ่งอ้างว่า
  • refugee: someone who leaves their country or living place, especially during a war or other threatening event - ผู้ลี้ภัย
  • revelation: a surprising piece of information - การเปิดเผย
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