‘Gone too far’: Thai PM Anutin slams foreign lawbreakers as backlash builds

BANGKOK: Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has issued a withering rebuke to foreigners behaving badly in Thailand following a wave of scandals involving illegal businesses and landholdings including a cemetery, saying the cases have “gone too far” by breaching Thai law and hospitality.

Facing mounting public backlash against illegal foreign ownership of swathes of the country enabled by endemic corruption, Anutin’s government has halved the visa-free entry period to 30 days for most countries and fast-tracked deportation proceedings against criminals.

Authorities have also launched a crackdown on “nominee” businesses that use Thai citizens as paper owners of companies, while vowing to tighten rules that have allowed foreign nationals to buy citizenship and therefore own land restricted only to Thais.

Chinese, French, Indian and Russian nationals have been among the targets of the snowballing crackdown, which has been closely watched by nationalist hardliners who have started street protests against transgressions by foreigners – and the official corruption that has allowed portions of the country to slip beyond the control of Thais.

Most recently Israelis, who have poured into the country since their war on Gaza, have stirred public ire for the alleged operation of nominee businesses that span entire southern islands – as well as a Jewish cemetery in eastern Chachoengsao province.

“I think this has gone too far – it’s beyond the limits of what we can accept,” Anutin told officials on Thursday (Sep 17).

“We’ve already been generous by allowing them to come here. If they come, they should make an honest living. But when they die, they should go back and be buried in their own country. They should not come here and take advantage of us.”

This week, four bodies were exhumed from the cemetery, which appears to have been legitimately bought by Thailand’s Jewish community but allegedly continued operating under a permit that lapsed a few years ago.

“If they want to use our existing facilities, we have no problem with that – whether it’s a church, a temple, a crematorium or an existing cemetery. We have no objection whatsoever,” Anutin said.

“But they cannot come here, take our land, and then bury their dead here. That is not acceptable.”

As the latest scandal erupted on Wednesday involving a Chinese fugitive who attempted to launder tens of millions of dollars through a tyre shop registered to his Chinese child – who held a Thai national identity card illegally bought for 500 baht (US$15) – the Ministry of Interior said it would swiftly amend the country’s 50-year-old nationality law.

The aim is to “close legal loopholes that have allowed grey-market capital and foreign nominee networks to Thai citizenship as a gateway for illicit businesses”, the government said in a statement.

The behaviour of foreigners has come under the microscope since Thailand launched a 60-day visa waiver in 2024 to kick-start post-pandemic tourism in a nation where a fifth of the economy is tethered to visitor spending.

But that policy has backfired. Thousands of cyber scammers and other criminals have abused the visa-free stay to set up illicit businesses and launder money made in the scam rooms of neighbouring Cambodia and Myanmar into Thai property, companies and resorts.

Endless viral moments of culture clashes, rudeness, bill-skipping and fighting by drunken foreigners have also fuelled anger among Thais that their hospitality has been abused.

With the country facing the tension point between welcoming the tens of millions of tourists each year it needs to keep hotels occupied and resort economies spinning – and the increasing number of scandals – Anutin said people “must come in a way that benefits both sides.

This article was first published on SCMP.