A special security team at
Suvarnabhumi airport has arrested 750 unlicensed taxi and
limousine drivers and 405 illegal tour guides in the space of just
one month, officials say.
The security team, made up of police, airport
security guards and land transport officials, began a crackdown on
illegal activities at the airport on July 31 after a flood of
complaints from tourists. Airport director Niran Thiranartsin
yesterday said illegal taxis were initially targetted, but tour
guides operating without permission were included from Aug 9.
Despite the huge number of arrests, a Bangkok
Post investigative report on Sunday showed many more illegal
operators were continuing to plague the airport.
Mr Niran said the situation remained serious
despite the initial success of the security team in tackling the
problem.
Illegal operators still needed to be targetted
and "we have to keep on seriously enforcing the security
measures", he said.
Any leniency now would only cause a setback to
Airports of Thailand Plc's renewed attempt to clean up the airport
by weeding out illegal operators and corrupt officials.
AoT president Serirat Prasutanond said earlier
the gangs which ran the illegal operations had indicated to him in
a phone call that they would flood back in once the crackdown lost
steam.
The maximum fine that could be imposed on the
illegal operators was 1,000 baht. Mr Niran said many of those
arrested were repeat offenders and it was necessary to produce
factual information to increase the penalties against them.
Besides the special security team, assigned to
patrol the airport around the clock, a new airport unit has been
set up to deal directly with illegal taxis and tour guides and to
support the team's work, Mr Niran said.
The airport was also installing 50 more security
cameras in the arrivals hall and in front of the passenger area on
the second floor, he said.
But one area where it was difficult to conduct
surveillance was around the baggage carousel where porters with
clearance passes who work for the airlines could approach
passengers to help them with their luggage.
Mr Niran said many of the porters were like
"outsourced" workers for the gangs and it was difficult to expose
them.
The AoT has been forced to tighten its security
measures at the trouble-plagued airport as the gangs had almost
free rein there for three years.
However, an AoT source said despite tougher
measures, including the planned transfer of staff suspected of
being involved in the illegal operations, the gangs would not be
easily contained.
"These gangs still do their business as usual,"
he said.
The AoT needed more cooperation from airport
staff at the operating level. But many were found to lack morale
and appeared uninterested in the problem because it was supposed
to be the responsibility of the special security team, he
said.
Source:www.bangkokpost.com ,
AMORNRAT MAHITTHIROOK, 9/09/2009
