Mafia à l'aéroport de Bangkok

Rien de bien nouveau sous le soleil : la mafia (hum hum... les business men importants fortement "soutenus" par les "élites politiques") gangrènent le premier aéroport de Thaïlande. 750 taxis illégaux contrôlés en un mois cela n'a pas l'air de déranger grand monde. Surtout pas les personnes concernés, avec 20€ d'amende ils rigolent doucement... Une course avec un japonais et l'affaire est remboursée.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/23487/airport-crackdown-shows-results

Airport crackdown shows results

Over 1,000 unlicensed taxis, guides arrested

Writer: AMORNRAT MAHITTHIROOK

Published: 9/09/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: News

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.

www.monbangkok.com