“They are bombing illegally”: in Phuket they began the fight against the Russian “mafia”

Marina, a former Crimean, moved to Phuket long before the geopolitical upheavals – first on a work visa, and now she has been a resident of Thailand for several years, so she covers the situation from the Thai side:

– The local Information Center was the first to sound the alarm, it’s something like a labor exchange, where all information flows. Local job seekers register and track industries and segments of interest. Before, sooner or later, there was work. But recently, in some miraculous way, not having time to appear in the database of the Infocenter, the vacancy turns out to be filled by a relocant from Russia.

According to a former compatriot, this is precisely the main meaning of the appeal of local residents to the authorities of the island: “Russians are stealing our bread.” The petition also contains a request to check every Russian-speaking worker at Phuket enterprises.

“Of course, it’s impossible to check everyone,” Marina notes. – But here it means that you need to dance from the obvious. For example, in Phuket there are now a lot of Russian taxi drivers, which is quite ridiculous, since most of them do not know the language or the locality. A taxi driver is clearly a job for a Phuket resident, occupied by a Russian, as he agreed to a smaller percentage of the profits, or even “bombs” illegally, outside of official taxi companies. These are the locales (local. – Auth.) offer to check how they got such a job and whether they even have a work permit in Thailand.

The owner of a local supermarket, a native Phuket, mourns the former – “established and almost honest” – business on his native island. Today, when relocators from the Russian Federation have built into it, one can forget about calmness.

“These are mostly people who have come to us over the past three months, but for a long time,” the Thai businessman explains his position. – Of course, they do not know our language or our laws, many do not even understand English. But they are in a hurry to start earning, because they themselves are in limbo. But if they only played and sang songs in Russian restaurants, as they used to, or even worked there as waiters and cooks, no one would complain about them to official authorities. But they are infiltrating an ancestral business owned by Phuket families.

– Sounds like mafia! And what kind of business is run only by local families?

– Car rental, for example. In general, it is a mystery how a foreigner can buy a fleet of vehicles in a foreign country in a short time and obtain a license to rent it out?! I think everything is illegal. And accordingly, such cars are unknown in what condition. But they are still rented, because the prices are significantly lower than in the neighboring Thai box office. And the Russians also take them, only those who came for a short time. And what happened to them, Phuket and the families that own the car rental business will be to blame. Now they have got into the development business, into construction. It’s also a mystery. And as for the mafia, you are right on the mark: the Chinese mafia used to operate in these same areas.

– But everything worked out with the Chinese?

– Yes, some were even imprisoned. And the rest left. Now we have the Chinese only in the form of rich and dear guests. Before the pandemic, tourists from China occupied the most expensive hotels and left the most money in Phuket. Now we are waiting for them again, their borders have been opened …

Our relocators have also heard about the “Chinese mafia”: we are talking about the pre-pandemic struggle of Phuket people with the local Chinatown, whose hotels, restaurants and shops belonged to the citizens of the Middle Kingdom. They also took only their own to work there, so neither Phuket nor Thailand as a whole benefited from them, they only occupied a place.

“And then local hoteliers, restaurateurs and shop owners rolled a collective slander on them,” says Yegor, a relocant from Krasnoyarsk, who worked as a Russian-speaking guide in Phuket. – Chinese businessmen began to be pulled – detained and endlessly checked: permits for doing business, for trade, for the use of land, sanitary and fire conditions and all that. As we know, whoever seeks violations will always find it. As a result, the Thais of the Chinese “left”. True, before that, some had to be arrested and imprisoned.

– Our relocants are not afraid, what is the same with them?..

The smart ones are afraid. And they do not climb into obviously Thai niches. You must have a head! If you pour home-made Russian tincture in a local bar by agreement with the owner, you don’t bother anyone. Or, like me, you accompany groups of Russian tourists by agreement with their travel agency. But if you yourself got a bus somewhere and personally popped tourists on an excursion, luring them from the local tour desk, of course, there will be questions! Or when you move a local developer through lawlessness and build yourself there. Here, in addition to arrogance, you also need to have a lot of money. But, I’m afraid, just those of ours who don’t have them are trying to make fun of it on the spot …

Judging by the majority of Russian-language chats, Yegor is right: there are no rich relocators from the Russian Federation in Phuket – well, or they are hiding. The rest, in all seriousness, advise on how to stretch the month for 10 thousand baht (20,900 rubles). Some do not even have money to rent decent housing.

“Russian cards are not serviced here, the Thai bank does not open accounts for non-residents, it remains to earn some money on the spot,” says Lena, a relocant from the Volga region. – My husband and I are so simply obliged to do this, we have two children, they need to be fed. Remote work was not prepared: who knew that you would have to run to move …

Apparently, not only Lena and her husband are in this position, so compatriots in Phuket as a whole do not disdain any startups. Meanwhile, the Phuket Info Center publicly promises to “bring the problem of relocators from the Russian Federation to the government of the country, to involve law enforcement agencies and eventually solve it with the help of the Phuket tourist police.” Ordinary Phuket residents are asked to be vigilant and immediately report Russian illegal immigrants directly to the police.