PHUKET: A special meeting with consuls and honorary consuls from across the island was held at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (July 19) to discuss a range of issues, with Thai officials focussing on foreigners committing crimes on the island.
Countries represented at the meeting included Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel, Russia, Chile, Germany, France, Nepal, Mexico, South Korea, Estonia, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, and Luxembourg.
Phuket Vice Governor Amnuay Pinsuwan said that Phuket has a large number of tourists, so asking tourists to follow the rules is important for a happy coexistence between local people and tourists, said an official report of the meeting.
To that end, Phuket Immigration proposed security measures so that foreigners in Phuket would strictly comply with regulations and legal actions, in order to boost security in terms of crime and drugs, said the report, which made no mention of the current campaign by local police to specifically target and arrest foreigners found working illegally.
At the meeting it was pointed out that there are currently 28,614 foreigners living in Phuket, and since January 565 foreigners “stood accused” of committing crimes. The report did not give any breakdown on the types of crimes foreigners were arrested for committing.
Phuket Immigration Chief Pol Col Thanet Sukchai said that the ongoing “white accommodation” project for foreigners in Phuket, which also targets Thais found harbouring foreigners wanted for criminal activity, or Thais found not reporting foreigners staying at their rented accommodations, was a “model for the country”.
From June 1-30, 248,325 tourists arrived in Phuket, but 334,752 tourists were reported as staying at guest accommodations, including rented properties, during the period, Col Thanet reported.
“This creates confidence in taking care of tourism safety for tourists,” he said, according to the official report.
Kornpitak Assuwan, Head of the Policy Division at the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO), explained what efforts were underway to “organise” car and motorbike rental operators in the area, namely the campaign to “urge” car and motorbike rental operators to not rent vehicles out to tourists who do not have the correct licence and to at least check the tourist can ride a motorbike before renting one out to them.
He also asked the consular representatives for cooperation by sharing the same information with tourists coming to Phuket.
“To rent a vehicle, foreigners must have a driver’s licence. And strictly follow the traffic rules to reduce and prevent accidents,” he said.
As understood by experienced tourists to Phuket, common practice for years has been for cars and motorbikes to be rented out to tourists without the correct licence, only for police to fine the tourist for operating a vehicle with the correct licence. Inexperienced motorbike riders suffer worse, usually through road accidents.
TRAFFY FONDUE
According to the official report of the meeting, the consular representatives were asked to inform foreign nationals from their respective countries that foreigners were invited to file complaints through the Traffy Fondue ‘citizen empowerment’ platform.
According to the report, there is now an English-language website version of the app through which foreigners may report problems such as broken footpaths, broken water pipes, poor street lighting and chronic flooding, among other issues.
Foreigners may also make suggestions and submit reports as “ whistleblowers”, and follow up on any action taken by the respective government agencies involved, said the official report of the meeting.
However, The Phuket News has been unable to confirm the existence of an English-language version of Traffy Fondue. The website (click here) remains in Thai language only, as do the mobile phone apps (on Google Play and the App Store).
