A total of 72 people, including three Thais, were arrested during coordinated police raids at 75 locations nationwide frequented by foreigners in the early hours of Friday.
Most of them face immigration charges, Tourist Police Bureau deputy chief Pol Maj Gen Surachate Hakparn said on Friday.
Eleven of the suspects (three from Myanmar, one each from India, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Finland, Serbia, and Russia) were charged with overstaying their visas
Forty-six others (23 from Myanmar, nine from India, seven from Cambodia, five from Laos, and two from Vietnam) were charged with illegal entry.
The 15 others (10 from Myanmar, three Thais and one Nigerian) were charged with other offences, Pol Maj Gen Surachate said.
The string of the raids were the 20th in the ongoing crackdown dubbed ''X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner''. Officers from the Central Investigation Bureau, Narcotics Suppression Bureau, Tourist Police Bureau, Patrol and Special Operation Division, the Metropolitan Police Bureau’s Arintharat 261 special task force, Immigration Office and Chana Songkhram police were involved, Pol Maj Gen Surachate said.
They targeted three international schools, two language schools, 13 secondary schools and 57 other places.
To date, a total of 1,904 foreign illegals have been apprehended during raids at 4,159 locations nationwide.
Pol Maj Gen Surachate said the crackdown also focuses on Nigerian nationals, with several having been arrested in connection with online romance scams.
Based on immigration records, there were about 1,400 Nigerian nationals currently in Thailand. Authorities were checking information about them to deter criminals from using Thailand as a base for their illegal activities, he said.
