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Thai Immigration and Labor Department Team Up to Crack Down

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Immigration and the Labour Department. 

In a video we recently made for this channel, we noted the fact that the Labour Ministry has its own hotline now and has made it known that that particular Ministry or the Department of Employment specifically is going to be on the lookout for foreigners working illegally. I think it is safe to say they are going to take proactive measures in order to ascertain those are working illegally and possibly detain, arrest, deport, it is unknown; fine for sure, but basically deal with people working illegally in a rather efficient manner for lack of better term.

That article came from thaivisa.com and they were quoting Bangkok Biz News, in fact they were translating from Bangkok Biz News and to quote directly from that article, the article is titled 2020 Crackdown on Tourists Working Without Work Permits- 50k Fines and Deportation Awaits. Quoting directly: "Chathumongkol's Department of Employment that issues Work Permits will be teaming up with the Royal Thai Police, the Immigration Bureau and the Department of Provincial Administration to flush out law breakers from Thailand. In another article, again from thaivisa.com, this one was translated and quoting: "Naew Na that's naewna.com, the title of the article: ‘Robin Hood’ American Arrested on 3-year Overstay. Quoting directly: "Naew Na then said that the arrest was part of the policy from the top to rid Thailand of unwanted foreign lawbreakers. They mentioned Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, Royal Thai Police Chief General Chaktip Chaijinda, and Immigration Bureau Chief Lieutenant General Sompong Chingduang as ordering this”,  and this is important to note further.  Quoting further:  "They asked the public to report overstaying foreigners, those working without work permits, and those working in 39 jobs that are reserved for Thais only. They urge to public to call 1178 to do that." So as we noted in the prior video we made on the Labour Ministry and illegal working, it appears that Immigration is also concerned with this. 

So the thing to take away from this video is those who are sort of working “under the table” for lack of better term or working without proper authorization, this good time to get in status. It is sort of like the warning I made the people prior to the implementation of The Blacklist here in Thailand or I should say The Blacklist regulations associated with those who overstay by more than 90 days. I said at the time, “get out and get one's status sorted before the new rules come in” so that one can rest easy under this new regulatory scheme. This matter is more of an enforcement issue but definitely in my opinion there is a signal and I think going into 2020, I think there has been a paradigm shift at a policy level that illegal working will not be tolerated and it is something that they are going to take much more proactive steps on dealing with from an enforcement standpoint.

So I think it is a good idea for those who are working without authorization in Thailand, regularize your status, normalize your status, get into proper Work Permit status and then you can rest easy moving forward notwithstanding the fact that Thai Immigration is presumably going to start cracking down with respect to Work Permit violations here in the Kingdom of Thailand.