A group of Chinese beggars who were recently arrested in Bangkok were not trafficked into the country and had unlawfully solicited donations in Malaysia and Singapore before trying their luck in the country, according to the Immigration Bureau (IB) yesterday.
Deputy IB commissioner Panthana Nutchanart said yesterday that some of the six beggars admitted to knowing each other and said they were not trafficked into the country.
Even though they had Thai minders, they insisted they worked "independently", he said, adding investigators did not find evidence that a Thai national benefited from their activities.
The beggars, aged between 28-41, used their scars and physical deformities to get tourists and passers-by in crowded areas to donate money. They told police they could earn up to 10,000 baht a day, which they would convert into Chinese yuan and wire back to China.
The Immigration Bureau also learned that some of them had begged in Malaysia and Singapore.
The beggars were arrested between Nov 11 and 20, and all have since been deported to China, he said.
The beggars, four women and two men, said the scars on their faces and bodies were the results of burns which they suffered as children.
Immigration security camera footage confirmed they were already disfigured when they arrived in the country.
They usually begged at footbridges and near shopping centres -- especially in the Asok, Lumpini and Silom areas.
Some of them had begged in their homeland and decided to try their luck in Thailand after friends told them they could earn substantially more here, Pol Maj Gen Panthana said.
One said he turned to begging while waiting for a replacement passport, while the others said they arrived for a visit but ran out of money.
Pol Maj Gen Panthana said the bureau has also arrested seven Jordanian adults and 16 minors at hotels on Nana Road after receiving complaints they were pestering tourists for money near minimarts and ATMs.