South hotels report online
All hotels in Hat Yai district, Songkhla province can now submit their foreign guests' registration information to the local immigration office via a newly created website.
Hotels that fail to report the registration of their guests face a maximum fine of Bt10,000, or Bt8,000 for each unregistered guest when they are located.Pol Lt Col Prathak Juengtrakool, chief of Hat Yai immigration office, who initiated the new ruling, said the website had been running since late last year. Police had already made several arrests of people whose names were listed in the website's database, he said. Most were suspects allegedly involved in separatist violence in the South. "The police actions as a result of the website and information database have foiled many terror attacks. But they never made headlines," he added. All hotels in Hat Yai and many more in other districts have registered with the website. Prathak said the website and its database could be further developed to make online registration of foreign guests operational at all immigration offices across the country. But it would require at least Bt1 million to run a main server and hundreds of client terminals. The www.immhatyai.com was set up at a cost of only Bt300,000. Registration of individual guests can be made online at a page inside the website - www.immhatyai.com - but could also be made offline on a downloadable Excel document.
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