Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing foreigners working illegally here in Thailand. For those who are unaware, it is illegal to work in Thailand without a Work Permit if you are a foreign national. For those who get on this whole "angels dancing on the head of a pin, you know well "what's work? Maybe I'm not working!" Look you know if you are working or not, that's the first big one. I think a lot of people, it's just worth noting. That said, as we have discussed in many other videos, the definition of work in Thailand is quite broad, I mean you could argue breathing is working in a sense.

That said. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: More foreigners employed in tourism. Quoting directly: "The illegal employment of foreigners in Thailand is still a concern for the tourism sector according to the Labour Ministry. Labour Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn" - who if folks recall me doing videos in the past going back a few years ago, he is the former Tourism and Sports Minister so now he has gone over to the Labour Ministry. It stands to reason he is going to view his role in the Labour Ministry probably through something of the prism of Tourism because he was dealing with tourism for such a long period of time - Quoting further: "said the Ministry has monitored the situation in recent years with data from October 2023 to February 2024, revealing that 13,424 foreigners were employed illegally particularly in popular tourism destinations. The trend is growing as the number of illegal foreign workers rose from 35,258 in fiscal year 2022 to 42,520 in fiscal 2023, according to the Employment Department. Mr. Phiphat said some foreigners were working in occupations reserved for Thai Nationals such as tour guides and barbers." Yeah and as we have discussed in many other videos, there is an exhaustive list of restricted occupations here in Thailand foreigners are not allowed to engage in per Thai Law. Quoting further: "The Government prosecuted 505 Foreigners for working illegally, who were all convicted of working in occupations reserved for Thais. He said the most common occupations for foreigners are: sales clerk at a store; street vendor; construction job; and barber." Sales clerk at a store is one that I don't think a lot of foreigners really take into account when they look at coming over to work in Thailand and what is a restricted occupation. 

Again, as we have discussed in many other videos, foreigners are rather constrained in terms of the type of work that they can engage in here in Thailand pursuant to the list of the restricted occupations which I have gone through at length, really don't want to get into it again because I get burned a lot by people who get upset because I talk about certain service sectors that foreigners cannot engage in; just leave it at that. 

That being said, I think it is worth noting, this is the Labour Minister; I have read other articles. It appears the Labour Ministry is getting increasingly concerned about foreigners working here illegally. When you have somebody at the Ministerial level who is concerned about that, that's something to take note of and when you combine that with the totality of the circumstances going on in the Thai Immigration system right now, as we have discussed in other videos, most notably this new system reports which have to be given by Thai Immigration on the status of Immigration cases, foreigners here in Thailand illegally etc., I think that this is sort of a confluence of events where we are definitely seeing a crackdown on foreigners living and working here in the Kingdom of Thailand.