Volume 14, Issue 03
16 - 31 October 2014
30 BAHT
What’s Inside:
Electronic tagging non starter
T
he suggestion of Thai Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul that foreign tourists should wear a wristband, embedded with an ID chip, has apparently been abandoned after Prime Minister Prayut Chano-cha said it was unenforceable. The idea was brought up in the aftermath of the murder of two British tourists on the island of Koh Tao and was a somewhat hasty response to the apparent failure of the police quickly to find the murderers. Actually, there were two proposals. The first was that tourists, on arrival at their Thai hotel, would be encouraged to wear a wristband with a serial number matching their ID contact details and the name of the hotel. At a later stage, the wristband could receive the additional security of an electronic chip which could even identify the location of the individual tourist through a global roaming system of some kind. A separate suggestion was that a Thai “buddy” could accompany foreign visitors during their vacation. The minister said, “If tourists are out partying late and, for example, get drunk or lost, they can be easily assisted.” But she did emphasize that only the wearing of a wristband was to be introduced in the near future. Initially, the ideas brought a positive response from the Thai police who were struggling to identify the Koh Tao killers amid often wild and untrue red herrings in the Thai social media. Continued on page 4
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Koh Tao tourists enjoying the beach life
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