Fake Thai ID Card Racket Busted in Tak; Myanmar Nationals Among Those Arrested

Police have arrested four Thai nationals and seven Myanmar nationals in a crackdown on fraudulent Thai ID card issuance in the border province of Tak. A former assistant registrar for Mae Sot district is also being sought, with as many as 700 people reportedly having obtained ID cards through illegal means. Seven of those arrested on Tuesday were Myanmar nationals holding illegally issued Thai ID cards. The four Thais included two women, one of whom allowed her address to be used as the listed residence of the cardholders. An assistant registrar and a temporary employee of the Mae Sot municipal office were also apprehended. The arrests followed raids on 25 locations in Mae Sot, according to deputy national police chief Pol Gen Samran Nualma. He stated that the gang had illegally issued Thai ID cards beginning with "0" – a category for individuals with no house registration records, often residing in border or remote areas or having been displaced. This operation in Tak comes a month after 11 people were arrested in a similar crackdown on illegal ID card issuance in Surat Thani province, where many of the holders were reportedly from Mae Sot. Detectives in Tak are still searching for a former assistant registrar of Mae Sot municipality, identified as Kit. He was dismissed from civil service last year after his wife was linked to an arms-trafficking gang supplying rocket-propelled grenades and ammunition to armed groups near the Thai-Myanmar border. "Zero-number" ID cards are issued to non-citizens, stateless individuals, or ethnic minorities legally residing in Thailand. Holders of these cards have fundamental rights to education, medical treatment, and employment. After holding the cards for five years, they can travel freely within the country and apply for Thai citizenship. Pol Gen Samran, who is set to become national police chief on Oct 1, said after the Surat Thani operation that authorities were cracking down on all forms of registration fraud, including identity theft involving inactive registrants, false birth registrations, false marriages, and misuse of education entitlements.