Suvarnabhumi immigration chief says staff is overloaded

As Suvarnabhumi airport prepares to mark its sixth anniversary on Friday, its immigration officials are struggling with a heavy workload.

Published: 24/09/2012 at 12:00 AM
Writer: Amornrat Mahitthirook

Pol Maj Gen Natthorn Prosunthorn, commander of Immigration Police Division 2 at Suvarnabhumi airport, said his team is busy not just checking passenger visas, but also protecting national security. "Immigration police must capture suspects who have outstanding arrest warrants issued by police stations nationwide," he said.

Suspects are taken by immigration officers to the stations where the warrants for their arrest were issued, the commander said.

At the moment, immigration officers are taking 10 people or more a day to police stations, which puts pressure on those left at the airport who must pick up their share of the work.

Apart from security duty, Pol Maj Gen Natthorn said staff must also provide receptions for official guests of the government, with many occurring on a daily basis.

But the most critical task is to secure the border and stop blacklisted people from getting in.

'No free time': Even for a toilet break

"Not everyone with a visa can enter the country. They will be sent back if they pose a threat," the commander said. "Plain-clothes police officers are also deployed to search for suspects," he added. Last year, 15,752,195 inbound passengers and 14,807,532 outbound travellers passed through the Suvarnabhumi airport's immigration counters.

Pol Maj Gen Natthorn said there is a huge shortage of immigration officers to process travel documents and electronic machines have been brought in to help them do the work. Authorities have deployed a number of automatic channel machines to check Thai passports, the commander said.

The equipment has helped shorten queues at the immigration desk, he said.

"It is impossible to hire more officials to match the ever growing number of passengers. So, the best way is to use machines which will boost work efficiency," he added.

Pol Maj Gen Natthorn also proposed recruiting translators of Russian, Chinese, Korean and Japanese languages to assist immigration officers.

People with a bachelor's degree who are well-versed in foreign languages should also be hired as police officers on contract, he suggested. Candidates would undergo immigration training for four months before working.

Pol Capt Saroj Tirakijphanich, deputy inspector of Immigration Division 2, said checking passports is a challenging task requiring considerable experience.

Many passports have been forged using counterfeiting technology which is hard to detect.

Sometimes the passports are genuine but the people who carry them are not the real owners but lookalikes, he said.

Each official checks around 5,000-6,000 visas per month.

As an incentive, an immigration officer who can deliver a record number of visa checks will be awarded with an overseas package tour. The highest record so far is 27,000 visa checks per month.

This is the first story in a series marking the 6th anniversary of Suvarnabhumi airport. Tomorrow: Continuing the battle against bird strikes at the airport.

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Discussion 1 : 27/09/2012 at 12:17 PM: Ban them using mobile phones, and yakking to their neighbours in the next booth might help. Everybody's experiencing increased traffic. Get used to it Natthorn, recruit and stop whinging!
Discussion 2 : 24/09/2012 at 06:13 PM: bluski9 disc # I find your comment totally untrue. I dont know how many times you enter the USA but I do frequently and sip through immigrations and never had a problem with any agent. If you are not a US citizen of course its going to take longer, thats do to homeland security and a separate line. Same as Thailand citizens And give me a break! I havent had one pleasant Thai agent check me through since coming to Thailand. They arent rude just stoned face with a careless look on their face, taking their sweet old time.
Discussion 3 : 24/09/2012 at 04:03 PM: Re: D18 I agree, and if you are behind a group from China or someplace where they have never traveled much then they do not know what to do, or even know that the paper needs to be completed before they arrive at the counter. I think with modern Tech, it would not take much for the airlines to hand you the completed document just before arrival...most of the info the airline has already checked before you were allowed to board.
Discussion 4 : 24/09/2012 at 03:09 PM: Immigration officiers having to work hard. Wow, that's news indeed!
Discussion 5 : 24/09/2012 at 01:46 PM: What took them so long to figure out they are understaffed? Letters in the Post have been saying it for a while. God help them and the passengers when 2 A380s land minutes apart.
Discussion 6 : 24/09/2012 at 12:09 PM: "staff must also provide receptions for official guests of the government, with many occurring on a daily basis." My advice: Stop wasting your time. "It is impossible to hire more officials to match the ever growing number of passengers." Really? Give us one reason why. On a different note, yesterday the queue at immigration / passport control at Suvarnabhumi was +/- 150 people when I got there. Within 15 minutes I was through and just 5 minutes later I picked all my luggage from the belt. A very positive experience.
Discussion 7 : 24/09/2012 at 11:45 AM: nosurprise D10 : Re: 90 days notification by post. Documents must be sent by registered mail and the receipt of the registration kept by the foreigner. So if they lose it in post you have proof of it being being sent. Also I just called immigration and was told yes you can send by post. Just make sure you send all photocopies required. Updated info for what you need is here http://www.immigration.go.th/nov2004/en/base.php?page=90days
Discussion 8 : 24/09/2012 at 11:40 AM: All these complaints boiled down the following reasons: A)Very poor Management and lack of forward planning as was pointed out earlier; B)Another good point mentioned is to keep suspects in a confine holding area, pending for Police collection; C)Very poor productivity level; from an average of 6000 visa checks per mth (31 / hr) against 27,000 checks achieved (140 / Hr); immigration officers are definitely poorly motivated, thus the incentives; D)They should second young men/women, minimum grade 12, who are doing their national service to reinforce the immigration officers; no bachelor graduates, worth their salt, will stay in these positions for long; E)Machines to clear passports for locals are already installed in many Asean countries; more should also be installed ASAP; F)Last but by no means least, train and pay your immigration officers well. In conclusion, just because some countries are not fairing any better than Thailand is no excuse for the Immigration not strive to be the best in Asean, if not Asia.
Discussion 9 : 24/09/2012 at 11:38 AM: All these police, army and other toads that are now at “inactive” posts collecting their salaries (Whatever that entails) could be used at immigration checking passports. As for hiring more staff, good question why not? The government can give away millions for foolish projects like water pushing barges they can give some to immigration.
Discussion 10 : 24/09/2012 at 11:36 AM: Immigration lines might move faster if their officers were not allowed to use personal cell phones while working. A week ago I entered the country and observed 2 officers sitting in same booth..both on cell phones for extended periods of time (one was using ear buds).Processing time was understandably longer. Use of personal cell phones should not be allowed while handling passengers
Discussion 11 : 24/09/2012 at 11:34 AM: How hard can it be to hire a few more people?
Discussion 12 : 24/09/2012 at 11:24 AM: "Pol Maj Gen Natthorn also proposed recruiting translators of Russian, Chinese, Korean and Japanese languages to assist immigration officers.' English would be a big help also!
Discussion 13 : 24/09/2012 at 11:23 AM: I think all the different airlines should help in filling out the immigration cards on board before arrival. Nothing worst than getting stuck behind someone who can't speak or read english and not knowing how to fill this card out. The immigrations officers can only do so much to for someone who cant speak english......waiting waiting waiting.
Discussion 14 : 24/09/2012 at 11:19 AM: In a real airport any suspects apprehended are collected by the police force. It's not immigrations job to deliver. Miss PM should go on national TV to kindly ask all suspects if they can choose another airport to escape through, that would greatly help reduce the workload at Suvarnabhumi. As there is a huge shortage of immigration officers, simply employ more....Not impossible.
Discussion 15 : 24/09/2012 at 11:02 AM: bkkskipper: " The 90 days notification matter is to protect foreigners " Can you enlighten us please how that works? You can fill in any address, nothing is ever checked. You don't have bring any proof that you actually live on the address that you fill in on the sheet. So what it boils down to is that these people are doing useless work. They could be doing something useful at SUV. Get it now?
Discussion 16 : 24/09/2012 at 10:22 AM: Each visitor is paying a tax to enter by way of the air fare so someone is receiving the money and not utilizing it correctly.Or do we smell the big C, where is the money going that should pay for more staff at immigration?May be the share holders but some one needs to sort it out.
Discussion 17 : 24/09/2012 at 09:29 AM: D9 , immigration in the USA is sometimes worse..takes over an hour and some of the officers are very rude..i've found Thai officers are alot better compared to their US counterparts
Discussion 18 : 24/09/2012 at 09:27 AM: "It is impossible to hire more officials to match the ever growing number of passengers" Why?
Discussion 19 : 24/09/2012 at 09:12 AM: The immigration officers at Suvarnabhumi are doing an outstanding job compared to immigration officers in Europe - particular in Germany. The 90 days notification matter is to protect foreigners and has nothing to do with immigration officers at the airport. Some tourists think its cool to give a hard time to the officer at the airport by submitting incomplete or wrong information's on their arrival card. I like the immigration officers in Thailand because they are friendly and supportive not like these useless guys, called immigration officers, in Germany.
Discussion 20 : 24/09/2012 at 09:10 AM: Didn't they do a forecast of passenger load before it was even built? They should have used that forecast to plan their workforce expansion. Oh, they didn't plan at all? lololol
Discussion 21 : 24/09/2012 at 09:04 AM: D8 90 days by post. Immigration told us not to because the applications get lost!
Discussion 22 : 24/09/2012 at 08:44 AM: May be Pol Maj Gen Natthorn Prosunthorn should consider re-engineering the whole systems. It takes more than 2 minutes by average to check all necessary documents and let go 1 passenger. In other countries this process takes much shorter. We appreciate the thorough checking but if they have better systems the processing time would be kept at minimum. It is getting worse with the new premises of immigration office upstairs, only 1-2 escalators available for 10,000s pax. In August'12, it took me longer than 1 hour at the customs and almost all passengers and planes on that day were delayed.
Discussion 23 : 24/09/2012 at 08:10 AM: How about getting the officers of the police stations where the warrants for the arrests were issued to pick up their own fugitives thus leaving immigrations officers free to do their own work? Is that not too easy? Methinks that a day trip out is more preferred than manning an immigration desk. elvis D2 : I agree the the 90-day address notification is nonsense but you can do it by post as long as you send at least 15 days before notification date is due.
Discussion 24 : 24/09/2012 at 07:54 AM: You could also do away with the re-entry permit scam and have those guys help out. Then again, why isn't it possible to hire more employees? Surely there must be people willing to secure a government job. Of course, like another poster said, maybe they don't have the required BA degree for doing some paperwork.
Discussion 25 : 24/09/2012 at 07:26 AM: Immigration is doing a great job at Suvarnabhumi given the resources available, but does not receive appropriate praise for it.....it is always nice to come back home to Thailand, so happy birthday to everybody at BKK .
Discussion 26 : 24/09/2012 at 07:19 AM: Elvis, great one, I may try Number 1 London
Discussion 27 : 24/09/2012 at 06:55 AM: The Commander is blaming the lack of officers, but is showing his lack of managerial skills. First, suspects brought to police stations. It would be more efficient to have them picked up by police officers from those police stations. Second, provide receptions for official guests of the government. Well that's a task for government servants. Usually, those people neither have visas nor have to show their passports. They have their own entrance procedures and protocol. So, get your duties and priority straight. Third, an incentive for the best officer? That's like taking out your best player in a football team. Well, I say they will never win this game...
Discussion 28 : 24/09/2012 at 06:46 AM: More obsession with bachelors degrees. Why not just get the most capable people into the jobs?
Discussion 29 : 24/09/2012 at 06:38 AM: How about transferring the officers who are busy with the 90-day nonsense to Suvarnabhumi to help out?. In Thailand residing foreigners have to notify their address every 90 days. Nothing is ever checked. I once filled in "Downing Street 10". The lady took my paper, stamped a new date on it and wished me a nice day. It's completely useless, mind numbing work. I think the immigration officers would be happy to work at Suvanabhumi.
Discussion 30 : 24/09/2012 at 05:20 AM: How many immigration officers could you have hired with all the money that was spent on the recent government sponsored media trip to the UK? Still think corruption is cool? Wake up Thailand! Corruption is not cool. Start thinking about the country instead of YOURSELF!

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