Attitude adjustment needed for Immigration
As I moved slightly sideways to ask a question of an officer at a side desk, there came an aggressive shout, “Get in the line!” I felt my response should be to cringe, awaiting a lashing. But I turned to the female police officer with, “Don’t shout at me like that.”
The male police officer towards whom the five-deep queue of immigrants was being slowly herded, added his shout with a very aggressive pose. When it was my turn I handed him my passport to receive my numbered ticket. Neither was handed back to me but instead pushed aggressively across his desk towards me with a glare.
Many of us in that queue at Pattaya Immigration had bought properties in Thailand and even had house registrations. We have dependent Thai families and pay 7-per-cent tax on almost everything we purchase with our imported currencies. We contribute socially and economically to the country in a considerable way. Nevertheless it seems that, to Immigration control, we are an inconvenience being offered a service for which we should be grateful and feel privileged. Immigration officers are public servants whose salaries are paid for by taxpayers. Yes, we are both grateful and privileged to be part of a Thai society that we respect, but the respect should be mutual. We have much to offer each other in this international world of national interdependence.
No doubt the attitude of some immigration officers is affected by the extremely overcrowded conditions in which they often work. The whole building is completely inadequate for the purpose. It suffers a crush of human bodies struggling to enter and leave the building through the same inappropriate doorway accessed by a steep flight of steps. There is little facility for parking and when the roads are flooded, chaos reigns.
The situation requires offices more appropriate, where immigrants are not treated like convicts queuing for breakfast, and where officers have space in which to carry out their work.
Thailand has a strict policy on immigration, ensuring immigrants are self-supporting, and that must be applauded. It ensures that most immigrants have at least some monetary wealth, but many have a considerable amount. That means all are financially independent. They do not arrive with a begging bowl and they are all identified with documentation. For Thailand, on balance, they are a positive asset to the country. They should be treated as such.
JC Wilcox
