700 more ‘outlawed foreigners’ arrested, immigration chief vows to deport all who have overstayed their visas in two weeks

Thailand’s Immigration Bureau today announced that 700 more foreigners with overstayed visas or criminal records have been arrested in the latest roundup, while vowing to deport all 7,000 foreigners who have overstayed their visas by the end of the month.

At about 2:30am, Immigration Chief Pol. Maj. Gen. Surachate Hakpal gave a press conference at a Silom hotel regarding the ongoing crackdown. Ed: Yes, the Thai police gave a press conference at 2:30 in the MORNING.

He stated that the 37th “X-Ray Outlaw Foreigners” operation — easily one of the best-named operations in Thai police history — resulted in the arrest of exactly 700 foreigners over the course of raids at 265 separate locations.

Of those, 247 had snuck into the country without visas, 104 had overstayed, and the 349 remaining were charged with other offenses including failing to declare their addresses or violating the alien business laws.

Maj. Gen. Surachate explained that tourist destinations, language schools, and private schools were their main targets.

The raids are an effort to fulfil Deputy PMr Prawit Wongsuwan’s one-month campaign to deport all illegal foreigners.

Surachate reported that 3,501 foreigners have been arrested thus far during the operation and vowed to deport all 7,000 overstayed foreigners by the end of the month, reported Workpoint.

Deportation operations like this have long been clouded by controversy as many believe authorities unfairly target Asian and African expats.

In February of this year, drama ensued when Surachate announced that he had arrested 75 “dark-skinned foreigners” from across Thailand.

This time, a number of Europeans and Americans, many of whom who had lived in the country for some time, have been deported.

And by “some time” we mean “a very long time,” in some instances. Dutch national Franciscus Ijzerman, for instance, was arrested for overstaying his visa by a whopping 1,562 days.

The numbers, however, remain relatively skewed, with just 31 of the 700 arrested so far hailing from non-Asian or African countries.