Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the resignation recently of an Immigration Chief here in Thailand. For those who are unaware, Immigration has different Provincial Chiefs basically. There are different Provincial Offices and then they will appoint an Immigration Chief for each one of those offices. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Phuket Immigration Chief resigns. PHUKET: Immigration Chief Colonel Thanet Sukchai has officially tendered his notice and been transferred immediately, it has been confirmed. Quoting further: "In his letter, Col Thanet stated, "I wish to resign from government service to maintain a moral system for the organization and I hope that in the coming era, people who work hard, sacrifice, and have good results will be considered fairly. Therefore, I am hereby requesting your consideration. Instead of accepting Colonel Thanet's request, the following day he was transferred to the same position at the Immigration office in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province. Col Thanet had been in the position of Head of Phuket Immigration for just over three years and had a mixed time during his tenure." Quoting further: "He and his team received praise for introducing such measures as the Phuket Crime Free initiative, otherwise known as the "white accommodation" project which focused on crime and drug free accommodation deliverables to ensure the safety of foreign nationals and Phuket residents,"  we have actually discussed that a little bit so-called yellow card / red card system and stuff like that; that all kind of fits into this sort of overarching program, quoting further: "Similarly, Phuket Immigration launched a tip-off hotline and an online form for people to report "bad foreigners" in their area in September." Quoting further: "More recently was the incident on October 27 when two Immigration officers intending to execute an arrest warrant for an Indian man overstaying in the country were assaulted at a luxury villa and in Laem Singh, Cheung Talay by foreign private security personnel. The situation required the Phuket Provincial Police Special Operations and Tactics (SWAT) Unit to intervene and bring an end to the hours-long siege." So a lot going on down there.

Now I saw a comment, I think it was when I was reading this article the first time there was a comment in there that said "oh he has been transferred over to Prachuap Khiri Khan, that is sort of a sign of ill favour or something of this nature”. I don't know that that is the case. That is not necessarily how I read this. It looks to me like he had a heck of a job dealing with a massive influx of folks coming in after the COVID restrictions and the Emergency Decree was pulled off. Then he gets this thing that involved the execution of what appeared to be, and go into this article, read it in detail and don't just read it; follow the links. Phuket News goes back and cites it all back, all these incidents that happened and it is really quite an interesting state of affairs how this all went down. But basically, I mean like a siege kind of situation sort of broke out down in Pattaya (Phuket); the SWAT was called in; the thing was put down; this person was deported and apparently blacklisted for the rest of their lives, because quite honestly I don't know why they are staging some kind of Waco thing down in Phuket, but okay whatever, that went down and so he had this tumultuous time in Phuket and then as a result of it he went ahead and for whatever reason he felt he needed to tender his resignation. 

His resignation apparently was not accepted. He's been reassigned to Prachuap Khiri Khan and again in the comments section if I remember correctly, somebody was saying "well this is like a sign of disfavour or something". I don't know that that's true. Prachuap Khiri Khan is a border province. This is a province that is going to be dealing with some of the most pressing Immigration issues of the day here in Thailand. If you look at the geography and the history of Prachuap Khiri Khan, I mean that is kind of where the Thai line held, going back into the old days of interactions with Burma and all of that. This is not an unimportant post. Now it's not a tourism-oriented post per se but it is definitely an important Immigration post. So I think when you sort of back out and look at it from sort of the totality of the circumstances, I don't think it is fair to say that this person has been marginalized or sidelined. If anything, I am wondering if this isn't an opportunity, they may have inadvertently found certain characteristics in this officer during these tumultuous times that led folks to think yeah maybe he's somebody that should probably be in a province that is going to be dealing with a lot more pressing Immigration issues. I don't know. That is speculation on my part. But just kind of is an outside observer who read through these articles, it didn't look to me like he did anything particularly wrong. If anything he dealt with an overwhelmingly difficult situation, brought it to a successful conclusion and has now been transferred.

So that said, again not knowing all the details, that's just one person's observation, we will certainly keep you updated on the situation as it evolves.