Transcript of the above video:

Yeah, as the title of this video suggests, this is a pretty tragic case which involves directly or indirectly, however you want to look at it, the issue of overstay here in Thailand. For those who are unaware, if you overstay in Thailand especially if you overstay by 90 days, you can be placed on the Blacklist here in Thailand which means you are effectively barred from remaining in the country, depending on the circumstances, you may have to go through the deportation proceedings, if you are arrested in Thailand or apprehended in Thailand in overstay or if you voluntarily go through the airport and leave, being on overstay for longer than 90 days can result in, if only a temporary blacklisting, but a blacklisting nonetheless. Once you are on the blacklisting in the database for that, it does make subsequent travel back into Thailand I will say more difficult.

That said, I thought it I thought of making this video after reading recent article from The Thai Examiner, that's thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Overstaying Belgian man shot himself in the head in Phuket on Tuesday, third suicide in 2 weeks. As usual, Thai Examiner very meticulous in their coverage of this. I urge those who are watching this video go read that article in detail; we are going to quote a couple of excerpts here. Quoting directly: "Belgian was facing arrest and deportation from Thailand after having stayed in the Kingdom for over 90 days beyond the expiry of his Visa. Police found a notification to that effect from the Phuket Immigration Bureau on the body of the Belgian lying at the popular shooting range." So apparently this gentleman, this person shot themselves; they went to a gun range, used the gun that they were supposed to be using for target practice and killed themselves. Quoting further: "A 52-year-old Belgian national facing arrest by Immigration Authorities in Phuket killed himself on Tuesday when he went to a firing range and used a handgun at the facility to shoot himself in the forehead. Police found a notice from Immigration Officers warning him that he had overstayed his Visa in the Kingdom by 90 days." Now again, I think it would be disingenuous to say "oh, there's a direct causation that he got this notification and then went and killed himself." We are never going to know and I would have to imagine there had to have been other major factors affecting this person to make them feel as though they needed to commit suicide and maybe the issue of having to deal with an overstay was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back as it were, other things compounded and then that just sort of was kind of the coup de grâce if you will. Very sad, very tragic. 

Now for those who are reading this article and thinking "we may see some dramatic change to Thai Immigration Law"; don't presume that, that is just not likely. This is sad, it really is too bad. Quite honestly, I wish he had contacted us; there are other options available to deal with this. It might have been a situation where yeah he would have needed to spend a few months outside of Thailand and then could have come back in with proper visa and continue maintaining status. I don't know what this person's situation was but again to presume that this tragic situation may lead to some major change in terms of Thai Immigration Policy, I don't think that there's anything to warrant that presumption and I don't see Thai Immigration Policy changing any time soon especially with regard to overstay. 

That said, this is a tragic situation. It's just one of these things that is really, really sad to see and it's another reason for those out there who are maintaining Non-Immigrant status long-term in Thailand, to be assiduous about maintaining your status because at the end of the day, if you fall into an overstay it could lead to a situation where you are going to be blacklisted from Thailand, at least for a temporary period of time and that is not a position anybody wants to be put in.