In recent years, a large number of Chinese students have gone to Thailand to study, but the "student visa" has gradually become a tool for some criminals to cover their identities and stay for a long time, causing serious security risks. The Thai Immigration Bureau is joining forces with multiple departments to launch a large-scale inspection and rectify this increasingly rampant gray industry chain.
Data shows that currently, there are over 13,000 Chinese citizens holding student visas in Thailand, most of whom are not actually studying. Many people pay about 30,000 Thai Baht through intermediaries to "enroll nominally," becoming a "legal" cover for cross-border criminal activities such as telecommunications fraud, money laundering, and kidnapping.
In early July, a luxury villa in Hang Dong District, Chiang Mai was sealed off, and the police cracked down on a fraud gang disguised with student visas, specifically deceiving Chinese compatriots, and identified its members who had been active under student identities, forming a covert and mature fraud and money laundering network. That month, a 24-year-old Chinese man in Chiang Mai was kidnapped and killed by compatriots, and police investigations found that the victim and his accomplices had been involved in cross-border crimes in Laos, Cambodia, and other places, with the student visa serving as their pass.
The problem of visa abuse is not limited to Chiang Mai. Similar cases have also been frequently detected in Bangkok, Phuket, and other places, and some universities have even found that some "students" never appear in class. As a result, universities such as Chiang Mai Northern University have initiated a monthly roll call system, and absences will be reported to the immigration bureau for handling.
To eradicate the chaos, the Thai government is integrating immigration, education, and law enforcement forces, planning to introduce measures such as real-name verification, strict border control, and the abolition of visa intermediaries, to comprehensively trace the financial flows and controllers behind criminal gangs. This move is also seen as an important turning point for Thailand in combating transnational gray industries, protecting the reputation of international education, and maintaining tourism confidence.
The loosening of student visa management has become a regional security risk. How to prevent its abuse by gray and black industries while opening up international education is testing Thailand's governance capacity and transnational cooperation mechanisms.
