Indonesian TikTok user lied on husband’s deportation: Thai immigration
Thailand's Immigration Bureau said on Wednesday that an Indonesian woman had lied in her viral TikTok post about her husband being deported by immigration police in Bangkok because he did not have cash on hand.
Pol Maj-General Choengron Rimphadee, commander of Immigration Police Division 2 and spokesman of the bureau, held a press conference on Wednesday to clarify the allegation of unfair deportation made by the Indonesian woman, who goes by her TikTok account name of Herjastipbkk.
The woman alleged in the post that she and her husband had travelled to Bangkok in January this year for a honeymoon. She claimed she managed to clear the immigration process but immigration officers at Don Mueang International Airport refused her husband entry on grounds that he did not have cash on him.
The woman claimed she withdrew cash to show to the immigration officers but they insisted on their decision to deport her husband so she had to cancel her trip and went on a honeymoon to Japan instead.
Her post was viewed over 24,500 times and received over 1,400 comments, generating a lot of criticism for the Thai immigration police.
Coengron invited Dewi Lestari, chief of the diplomatic protocol and consular affairs of the Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok, and Nithi Siprae, deputy governor of Tourism Authority of Thailand, to hear their clarification at the press conference.
Choengron said that after his division 2 learned of the post, it started an investigation immediately as the Don Mueang airport is under his division’s jurisdiction.
Choengron said his division checked records and found that the Indonesian woman had arrived at Don Mueang airport by Thai AirAsia flight FD395 on January 4.
Choengron said footage of security cameras clearly showed that the Indonesian woman had travelled alone and she was granted an entry. She left Thailand on January 16 via Suvarnabhumi Airport instead of leaving immediately as claimed on the TikTok clip.
Choengron said the Immigration Bureau had checked further and found that the woman had made frequent trips to Thailand and she worked as an online vendor. The spokesman said the woman might have faked her story for publicity.
During the press conference, Choengron showed pictures captured from the footage to the Indonesian Embassy representative.
Choengron said Thai immigration police did not prioritise checking cash of arriving foreign tourists.
Instead, police focus on checking their travel plans and see whether they have made hotel reservations. The checking is necessary to deter foreign workers from seeking work illegally in the kingdom, he added.
He said immigration police rejected entries mostly because the foreigners failed to show their travel plan and hotel reservation proof. Many even showed bogus proof, he added.
He said the Indonesian Embassy had even thanked Thai immigration police for detecting Indonesians, who were lured to enter Thailand just to cross the border to work for call centre gangs in neighbouring countries.
