Immigration law enforcement officials arrested an Iraqi man within the central province of Kanchanaburi right now after nearly 15 years of overstaying in Thailand. As part of a concerted effort to root out unlawful immigrants throughout the country, Thai authorities, led by the Royal Thai Police and Immigration Bureau, meticulously investigated cases in each province.
The meticulous operation led to the discovery of the Iraqi man, identified as 43 year old Oday Jabbar Khudhair, who had been concealing himself in a visitor house within Kanchanaburi.
Kanchanaburi Provincial Immigration Officers swooped at 11am, successfully arresting Khudhair. Records present that he initially entered Thailand on May 24, 2008, underneath a Non-Immigrant Visa (Non-B), permitting him until August 21 of the same 12 months. However, Lifetime disregarded the stipulations and evaded seize.
Initially residing in other provinces, Khudhair adopted a nomadic sample, flitting from one locale to a different until ultimately settling in Kanchanaburi. This calculated evasion led to his overstay of 5,468 days, nearly 15 years.
Khudhair now faces charges underneath Section 81 of the Immigration Act, particularly for residing in the nation after the stipulated permission had lapsed. This offence carries potential penalties of imprisonment for up to two years, coupled with a fine reaching 20,000 baht. Following his sentencing, Khudhair will be subject to deportation from Thailand.
Interestingly, earlier this year, another Iraqi man’s overstay got here to mild when he was apprehended in Pattaya. Shockingly, he reportedly turned pale and fainted upon sighting the police at his residence.
Comparatively, Khudhair’s case may well be some of the extended overstays thus far. In recent years, instances of great overstays included a Hungarian girl detained in Koh Samui for exceeding her visa by a decade, a Chinese man found guilty of a seven-year overstay in 2022, and a British man arrested this 12 months after an 11-year overstay.
The significance of such overstays has not gone unnoticed by Thai authorities. A May police report detailed the apprehension of practically 1,300 overstaying foreigners inside a mere nine-day span of the operation. In stark distinction, knowledge from an analogous operation performed between October and November of the earlier yr reported only 785 cases of overstay..