Thai police have arrested a Chinese couple and two Thai men as part of an investigation into a case suspected of obtaining Thai citizenship for foreign children through fraudulent parentage registration. Authorities are further reviewing the birth records of 1,483 children in Bangkok.
According to the Nation newspaper, authorities will also inspect over 470 private hospitals nationwide to investigate whether any hospital staff have assisted in forging birth and parentage information.
On the 23rd, police raided two locations and arrested four suspects. Police disclosed that the Chinese couple are the biological parents of two children, while the two Thai men allegedly posed as the children's fathers. Both children involved hold passports from two countries.
Currently, all four have been charged with jointly making false declarations to officials, using forged official documents, and tampering with civil registration data to illegally obtain Thai citizenship. During police interrogation, the four suspects have confessed to the above crimes.
Previously, Thailand’s local administrative departments discovered suspicious loopholes while checking the civil registration database, particularly birth records showing the mother as Chinese and the father as Thai. Further investigation revealed that some Thai men were registered as fathers, but the actual biological fathers were foreign nationals without Thai citizenship.
Deputy National Police Chief Surachate Hakparn said that authorities have locked onto records related to 1,483 children in Bangkok for further scrutiny. So far, two confirmed violations have led to these four arrests. Police will examine the remaining records one by one, and if it is confirmed that citizenship was obtained through fraud, it will be revoked.