Exposing the 'Zero Number Card' scheme, sources from the National Anti-Corruption Commission revealed it has operated for 10 years, using scotch tape to mask fingerprints, laundering foreigners as unregistered Thai citizens, but was exposed when some had previously registered as laborers.
Today (26 Aug 2023) at 9:30 a.m. at Chiang Mai Provincial Police Station, Mr. Worasit Liangprasit, Deputy Minister of the Interior, held a press conference to announce the operation results. The 'Sabo Phai Chai Prakan' operation. He was joined by Mr. Narucha Khosasivilai, Director-General of the Department of Provincial Administration; Police General Samran Nualma, Deputy Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police; Mr. Ratphol Naradisorn, representative from the National Anti-Corruption Commission; officials from the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the Department of Special Investigation, and related agencies.
This operation is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Interior through the Department of Provincial Administration, the Royal Thai Police, the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Chiang Mai Province, and other relevant agencies to suppress. the corrupt scheme of registering individuals without legal status and issuing identification cards to such persons (zero number cards) improperly to foreigners. In Chai Prakan District, Chiang Mai Province.
Thairath Online's special task force inquired with. sources from the National Anti-Corruption Commission in the area. Who have been tracking this case for a long time, providing initial information that from 2016-2020, three district registration clerks—two deceased and one alive—issued zero number cards (white cards) to 5,044 persons locally. Among them, 23 were foreigners fraudulently obtaining rights: 22 Myanmar nationals and one Chinese national, though it remains unclear how the Chinese national managed to enter illegally.
Sources disclosed that the Department of Provincial Administration and the National Anti-Corruption Commission have jointly conducted crackdowns on foreign registration cards, starting from Wiang Haeng District, spreading to Chiang Dao and Chai Prakan Districts—all bordering Myanmar. The two deceased district registration clerks had a history of corruption starting in Wiang Haeng before extending their activities to nearby areas.
Sources confirm that legitimately, unregistered Thai citizens or those born in Thailand without proper registration should be issued zero number cards to access basic rights such as education, healthcare, work, and nationality verification if qualified by law. However, some people seeking zero number cards infiltrated the registration office by adding names to household registries within the registrar's jurisdiction.
This scheme involved adding names to household registries of hosts in the registrar’s area.
The scheme occurred with the knowledge of the hosts, who have since faced legal action. Furthermore, guarantors such as village chiefs and headmen were involved, including in this case a deputy mayor who signed to certify the individuals as genuine residents, though they were actually foreigners or migrant workers in Thailand. Once certified, the registrar issued the zero number cards, making these individuals appear as unregistered Thai citizens.
Ordinarily, officials might claim they were misled by certifications when issuing cards. However, investigations by the Department of Provincial Administration found that these foreigners had no right to the cards and already had fingerprint data in the foreign labor database. To obtain zero number cards, they registered again, disguising fingerprints by. using scotch tape. They applied scotch tape to their fingers or scanned only the side edges of their fingertips in front of the registrar.
"This act is intentional and illegal, aiming to obtain zero number cards by falsely claiming to be unregistered Thai citizens without ID cards, underprivileged with proper residence, while in reality masking original fingerprints in the foreign labor database. These individuals had no right to zero number cards from the start," the source explained.
Although the exact amount of per-person payment remains unknown, the Director-General of the Department of Provincial Administration stated that money was definitely involved and suspects the existence of a larger underlying network currently under further investigation.