Transcript of the above video:

For those who have viewed this channel with any regularity for any period of time, you will know that the background here is slightly different. Well that's because I have the flu and if you have noticed the past few videos I made, there were a couple of them where quite honestly, I was kind of drenched in sweat, I was barely able to even get through getting the videos done in the usual format, so if you will bear with me, I want to get the information out there so I am going to do it under this format. Hopefully next week we will be back to our usual format but again please bear with me and thanks for bearing with me.

That said, as the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Thai Immigration Police Chief targeting "bad foreigners"! I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Phuket officials to set up task force to identify 'bad farang'. Quoting directly: "Pol Lt Gen Itthiphon Ittisanronnachai, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Police Immigration Bureau, in Phuket yesterday (Dec 26), called on Phuket officials to establish a task force to identify 'bad foreigners' so that the Immigration Bureau can help to deal with them." Quoting further: "I want the officials to be strict about safety protection, especially those who come to work in the gray areas, the Mafia, and I want local officials to help them [Immigration Officers] be strict," he said. In addition, sharing Big Data between agencies, such as notifying the residence of a foreigner will have information of all foreigners. The private sector will greatly benefit from collecting information from officials, he added." Then quoting further: "Regardless, Lt Col Itthiphon yesterday talked at length about rooting out 'bad elements' and "foreigners who cause chaos". Quoting further: "We can provide support information, and the Immigration Bureau can consider revoking permission to stay in the Kingdom".

So when I first started reading this, my immediate if you will, reaction was I immediately thought of a phrase going back now years, although it has kind of still been in the background, the so-called "good guys in, bad guys out". We have always kind of had this policy here in Thailand. It has been something that really for about the past decade I would say, well at least 8 years, has been implemented in earnest is which is look Thailand is very, clearly as we have seen, they are becoming increasingly accommodating to foreign nationals looking to come here as tourists. Obviously there are Business Visa options; there are options related to studying in Thailand; family members of Thai nationals can get O Visas to remain in Thailand on a long-term basis, these are all really great, I mean these are benefits that are accorded to and provide accommodation for foreign nationals that wish to come here.

That said, those that abuse the system, I think the folks that are administrating the system are trying to be as clear as possible, you will be targeted essentially. And they now have pretty high tech tools to go ahead and implement Thai Immigration Law, enforce Thai Immigration Law, to be clear. So the thing to take away from this video is look, if you are coming to Thailand to just have a good time, be a tourist, don't even worry about this stuff, honestly it's not something to be concerned about. If you are looking to come to Thailand and you want to do legitimate business, don't even worry about this stuff, there's plenty of opportunity for that. Meanwhile though the folks who would like to come in here for nefarious reasons probably not a good idea, and quite honestly yes there was a time in the analog era where it might have been possible to sort of "slip through the cracks", that has effectively ended. We have done a number of videos about how people are getting picked up for overstay literally the day they are on overstay or they are, especially down in Phuket, Thai Police will show up and knock on somebody's door and say "hey you're on overstay" and they will deport them right there. This reminds me a lot of how, primarily I remember the Japanese and Korean Immigration Systems worked where man, it was efficient, they knew exactly where you were at and if you were out of status believe me they would come along and enforce the law. It looks to me like Thailand is now taking up a similar tack so basically be aware of this. Again if you are here legitimately, don't worry at all; if you are not, maybe think about getting yourself out and sort of getting yourself right with the system. Or, if you are looking to come here again for some sort of nefarious purpose, maybe just don't think about coming at all.