Police are checking the documentation of Filipino transgender women on Soi Sukhumvit 11 in Bangkok after they brawled with Thai trans women on Monday night.
Police said on Tuesday that many trans women had arrived from the Philippines on 30-day tourist visas and had checked in at hotels on Soi Sukhumvit 11.
Police were checking if their visas were still valid and whether they were working illegally.
Thai and Filipino trans women brawled on Soi Sukhumvit 11 on Monday night.
According to police, the incident began with a dispute between three Filipinos and two Thais. After parting, the two groups confronted each other again outside a seafood restaurant on Soi Sukhumvit 5. They quarrelled and left the scene.
The two sides then met again on Soi Sukhumvit 11. There were 15 Filipinos and six Thais. They argued and fought each other. Thais had suffered injuries in the fight and filed a complaint at Lumpini police station.
Thai trans women then gathered back at a hotel on soi 11, many summoned by social media messages, waiting for the Filipinos to return.
When Lumpini police arrived at the hotel to take two of the Filipinos to the police station another brawl broke out as police escorted them from the hotel, and another person was injured.
Police had not so far pressed charges against anyone over the incident. They were still gathering and reviewing the evidence, which would include footage from surveillance cameras and body cameras of police at the scene.
At Lumpini police station, a Thai trans woman said some of the Filipinos had checked out of their hotels and left the country on Tuesday morning.
She said that Filipino trans women had rented rooms in the area only recently, and frequently stood outside in front of the hotels in such a manner that "everyone understands what they are doing".
She said the Filipinos often swore at Thai trans women who walked past their hotels, and police could see that for themselves on surveillance camera recordings.
