Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Immigration making arrests for Work Permit violations. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Chinese women arrested at Phuket Airport for working illegally. "PHUKET: Immigration Officers have arrested two Chinese women taken into custody in the car park in Phuket International Airport for working illegally.” Then quoting further: "The two women were taken to Sakhu Police Station which is responsible for Phuket International Airport. If found guilty, the women face fines and deportation with the possibility of being banned from re-entering Thailand for a specified period." 

Yeah, Thailand takes this stuff seriously. I have said it before and I will say it again. Immigration and work authorization is something that more and more they have taken much more of a law enforcement attitude rather than sort of an administrative attitude towards and when folks are flagrantly violating especially the Work Permit rules, Thai Officials get rather upset at that. Thai Law Enforcement gets rather upset at that and quite honestly there is an underlying policy reason and that is that the people of Thailand, the polity here is trying to protect its own; it is trying to take care of its own labour force and yes there is an element of protectionism there but that is just the way it is. That is how things work here in Thailand.

So the thing to understand is that if you want to come to Thailand and engage in work, and for those who are unaware, work is a very broadly defined thing, it is basically anything; you could argue breathing could be considered work by the definition of work which I have gone over and over in many videos on this channel before. Yeah if you want to work in Thailand you need to receive work authorization. Apply for the proper Visa and Work Permit and once that is issued you can then engage in that kind of labour. So again, the thing to take away from this video, if you are going to come to Thailand and you want to work in Thailand, go ahead and get a Work Permit before engaging in any employment.