Thailand Registry Fraud Case Widens: Immigration Raids in Bangkok Over "Ghost Father" Registrations; Chinese Fugitives Used Fake IDs to Hold Land and Run a 15-Billion-Baht Fraud
BANGKOK — Thailand's Immigration Bureau searched two homes and one company in Bangkok and Samut Prakan on October 15 in an investigation into the alleged use of false DNA evidence to obtain Thai citizenship for children of foreign nationals. The operation was ordered by national police chief Pol Gen Samran Nuanma and Immigration Bureau commissioner Pol Lt Gen Nopasilp Poolsawat, with arrest warrants issued by the Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Court for alleged false statements to officials and the unlawful production or use of civil-registration documents. Police said the alleged false registrations had been found in Nakhon Ratchasima since 2021, and that information gathered in the searches indicated Chinese nationals may be connected to the targeted locations; their roles and possible links to the network are being urgently examined. Authorities described the activity as a serious threat to national security and to the credibility of Thailand's civil-registration system.
The case is part of a wider registration-fraud scandal exposed in Thailand this year. According to Thai media reports, the networks relied on two main methods. The first, "ghost father" registrations, paid Thai men to falsely register as the fathers of children born to foreign mothers, so the children could claim Thai birth certificates and nationality through a "Thai father." The second, "ghost house" registrations, placed foreign nationals on the household registers of abandoned, demolished or uninhabited properties to fabricate the residency required for naturalization. Reports say more than a hundred children were registered at a single address in some cases, several private hospitals are under investigation for allegedly issuing false birth certificates, and police estimate brokers charged up to 2.5 million baht per fabricated identity.
Among the cases already exposed, a Chinese national, Yi Long, allegedly obtained a Thai ID card (with a number starting with 5) after being added to a household register in Wiang Kaen district, Chiang Rai, under a claim dating back to 1989 that later unraveled over irregularities in his son's birth record; using the fabricated identity, he registered companies and held land worth more than 500 million baht. Another Chinese national, Li Sijun, allegedly obtained a "status-less" ID card (number starting with 0) by falsely claiming to be the child of ethnic Lisu parents in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai; he is wanted in China over fraud totaling 15 billion baht and is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice.
The Thai government has responded with retrospective reviews of naturalization cases, strict DNA testing, action against corrupt officials involved in the registry scams, and moves to amend the Nationality Act to close the loopholes. The investigation continues to expand.
In parallel, Thai police are cracking down on "grey capital" property networks: in the eighth phase of the nominee-property operation on October 10, 11 foreigners were arrested, 10 of them Chinese nationals (see GSM's report of the same day).
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 泰国移民局总部大楼。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，Adirach Toumlamoo 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0 授权 / Thailand Immigration Bureau headquarters. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, by Adirach Toumlamoo, CC BY-SA 4.0.
