On August 17, an explosion went off at the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok, killing 20 people, including foreign tourists, and injuring over 100 others. The ongoing investigation into the deadly attack has so far resulted in three arrests of suspects connected to the explosion.
"Corruption in the immigration police paved the way for the orchestrators and perpetrators of the explosion in the Erawan shrine in Bangkok. Corruption has become a cause of many problems, it has already negatively affected our system of national security," the police chief was quoted as saying by the Thai Rath newspaper.
According to the police, the suspects in the Bangkok terrorist attack had crossed the Thai-Cambodian border several times with fake passports in exchange for bribes.
Several immigration officers in Bangkok international airports received bribes totaling on average some $50,000 a day for using fake immigration stamps to help people enter the country with forged passports, the investigation revealed.
A separate investigation into corruption in the immigration services has been launched, Thai officials have confirmed.
