The House Committee on Public Health has urged authorities to step up investigations into “fake father” networks, warning that foreigners fraudulently registered as Thai could eventually gain the right to own property and enter politics.
Committee chairman Sakoltee Phattiyakul said on Thursday that the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration had identified 879 suspicious birth registrations across 29 districts between 2017 and 2026, up from more than 500 cases found in an earlier five-year review.
Of those, 27 were confirmed as fraudulent and their birth certificates revoked, while 810 remain under investigation. DNA tests are being conducted in some cases, while some suspects have confessed.
Officials at three or four district offices were allegedly involved. One official from Thon Buri district has been dismissed and the case referred to police.
The Department of Provincial Administration has also identified more than 10,000 suspicious cases between 2012 and 2026 involving children purportedly born to Thai fathers and foreign mothers, most of them Chinese nationals.
Mr Sakoltee said DNA testing was at the discretion of officials. Parents who refuse testing have their cases flagged in the civil-registration system, but their children can still conduct transactions and, once they reach adulthood, own property.
He said 10 private hospitals were under investigation, including one in Thon Buri linked to 164 suspicious cases. However, inspections began only after police provided evidence of possible wrongdoing.
“This is not proactive work but reactive work,” he said, calling for systematic inspections and electronic birth-registration systems at private hospitals, where handwritten records are still widely used.
Mr Sakoltee described the networks as a national security threat, warning that foreigners who obtain Thai nationality through fraudulent birth registrations could eventually acquire property and political rights, including eligibility to become MPs or even prime minister.