Police graft goes far beyond immigration

Reports this week of an anti-graft crackdown on Immigration Police are not so much reassuring as they are disturbing. We are disturbed because, even though we can predict irregularities among some of the officials, the systematic nature of the graft is quite worrying. Compounding our concern is the fact that it took a tragedy like the Erawan Shrine bombing to spur those at the top of the police force into action. Without the bombs, how much longer would the immigration scams remain hidden under the rug?

In his “urgent report” to the prime minister, the police chief described the scams as potentially harmful to national security. That might not be entirely accurate, but what’s been going on is absolutely wrong, regardless of whether it affects national security or not. Police corruption affects far more than just public safety. It lowers public morality and infects other sectors of society. In other words, police graft makes national corruption overall a lot harder to beat.

The report to the premier describes what some Immigration Police have been doing. They extend the stays of foreigners who bribe them; they advise foreigners how to get around the law on visa runs; they are paid to allow illegal entries; they issue their own work permits; they demand grossly inflated fees for visas on arrival from foreigners who wouldn’t pay except out of desperation or ill intent; and they intimidate foreigners, many of them probably innocent, into paying bribes.

In Thailand, there is a saying that police and custom officials in remote areas who are transferred to Bangkok have been demoted. That’s because bribery is more widespread in the rural areas and at border checkpoints. Being a customs official in the far South, for example, is said to be quite “lucrative”.

The crackdown on corrupt Immigration Police must not be a flash in the plan. In fact, the campaign must cover the entire police force. If Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is serious about uprooting corruption within the force, he must already know that the problem has spread far beyond a few immigration officers demanding money for illegal entry. Traffic police are corrupt. Those enforcing early-closure regulations on bars are corrupt. Anti-narcotics police are corrupt. Police can speed up or slow down cases depending on where the money comes from. They can make cases strong or weak depending on the same factor.

Lip service and knee-jerk reactions will never tackle police corruption. An all-encompassing strategy must be mapped out. 

The political will must be unwavering, the public-awareness campaign must be intense and continuous, and punishment must be swift and harsh. Absolutely no one should be spared. The cop who allegedly assaulted a waiter after failing to secure a free meal by flashing his badge must be made an example of.

Last but not least, one part of the report to Prayut states that the visa-on-arrival scam brings in Bt1.8 million worth of bribes daily and “there is no information on whom the money has gone to”. This implies – and adds weight to the general suspicion – that police at the very top, or near to it, have benefited from the illegal activities that mock their vow to protect and to serve. Most of all, it underlines the scale of the task of whoever tries to clean up the force. 

The undertaking will be daunting and most likely dangerous, but Thailand will continue to suffer unless something serious is done soon.