The Immigration chief of the southern province of Ranong was transferred to an inactive post in the Immigration Bureau after Myanmar accused Ranong immigration police of slow service for 200 Myanmar tourists.
The Immigration Bureau said on Monday that acting immigration police commissioner Pol Lt Gen Sompong Chingduang last Friday transferred Pol Col Weerayos Karoonyatorn, the Ranong immigration chief, to the operations centre of the Immigration Bureau.
The move followed media reports that Myanmar representatives from Kawthaung town had complained about Thai immigration service for about 200 Myanmar tourists during a meeting between their township border committee and their Thai counterparts in Ranong on April 26.
The Myanmar side said that on Feb 7, Myanmar tourists had to wait for four hours -- from 8am to noon -- to clear immigration in Ranong.
The bureau said that local immigration chiefs were responsible for monitoring tourist traffic and deploying additional personnel when numbers increased.
Media reported that last month Pol Col Weerayos claimed the group of some 200 Myanmar tourists actually arrived in Ranong at about 10am on Feb 7, and immigration procedures took each visitor about two minutes because some people were first-time visitors who had to have their fingerprints collected.
The procedure for all the tourists took about two hours to finish, he said, and Ranong immigration police did their best. The incident could have been prevented if tour firms had warned of the large influx of tourists beforehand and thus allowed the provincial immigration bureau to prepare sufficient resources, Pol Col Weerayos said.