Heroes amid the "hell" of Immigration
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I had to visit Immigration last Tuesday after protests saw it temporarily relocated in a shopping centre on distant Lat Phrao Road.
I was prepared for inconveniences, but I was shocked by what I saw. It was absolute hell. In an area about one-tenth the size of the normal facility, foreigners were stacked wall to wall. Queues were mislabelled and there wasn’t a uniformed official in sight.
I did a 90-day residency report and had my visa transferred to a new passport. The entire affair took three hours and, under those conditions, that was fast.
Working hours were 10am to 6.30pm with no lunch recess. In chatting with the staff, they assured me they would receive no overtime payments and agreed some would soon be having nervous breakdowns.
After decades of dealing with Thai Immigration, I am thoroughly convinced that “This was their finest hour”.
Frank Lombard
Bangkok
