Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing cracking down on illegal workers in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com article is titled: Illegal job seekers arrested near western border. I urge those who are watching this video, if you are interested in this, go check out that article in detail. I am just going to quote one small excerpt here. Quoting directly: "KANCHANABURI: Government patrols arrested two groups of Myanmar job seekers, 45 in total, who illegally crossed the border into Muang District on Sunday, police said." Something to think of and, this pertains to Myanmar and Myanmar labour as well as Laos and Cambodia. There is a constant influx and back and forth of sort of migrant labour coming into Thailand from the surrounding countries. We have discussed it, not really the thrust of this channel but sometimes what happens with regard to some of the migrant workers can in my opinion operate as bit of a bell weather with respect to what may be coming next with respect to Immigration Policy in a broader sense. What are we talking about? Well look we have come off the Emergency Decree now. We are now sort of back into status quo ante first quarter 2020 and we are back under the old Immigration regime. Look Immigration didn't stop being concerned about working illegally in Thailand, neither did the Labour Department. It was just we were in extenuating circumstances, it wasn't considered a priority and moreover I think this is more the point is if you would have caught those folks what would you have done with them? I mean you place them in detention facilities, that is a problem from a pandemic management standpoint; are they going to be taken back by their home country; are they going to have problems in transit, what is it going to cost to deport them? Long story short Thai immigration basically said, I am not going to speak for them by any stretch but my observation was, I won't say there was a moratorium on these kind of crackdowns but it just wasn't that frequent it wasn't something that was considered the overwhelming priority.

I suspect that is probably going to change. Now that we are out of the Emergency Decree the discretion of Thai Immigration Officers with regard to extensions etc. is no longer there. I think it is very possible that we will see again perhaps not a return completely to the status quo ante, but I would not put it outside the realm of possibility that we could see serious Work Permit crackdowns coming in the relatively foreseeable future.