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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawVisa NewsHas the "Big Joke Era" Ended at Thai Immigration?

Has the "Big Joke Era" Ended at Thai Immigration?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing what appears to be the transfer of Surachate, "Big Joke" Hakparn, who was the Lieutenant General in charge of the Royal Thai Police or I should say the Royal Thai Immigration Police apparatus here in the Kingdom of Thailand and it appears as though he has now been transferred.  

Pursuant to a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the title is Big Joke Transferred to Police HQ. Quoting directly, "Surachate, "Big Joke" Hakparn, the country's highest profile policeman has been transferred to the Royal Thai Police Operation Center under an order signed by National Police Chief Chakthip Chaijinda; no reasons were given. Police General Chakthip who signed the order on Friday night, Police Spokesman and Lieutenant General Surachate could not be contacted by reporters on Saturday.  Police Lieutenant General Surachate's Facebook page, his Twitter account and the Immigration Bureau Facebook page were offline on Saturday."

For those of you who are unaware and those of you who have watched this channel with any frequency, you will be well aware “Big Joke” has been basically the catalyst for a great deal of change within the Immigration Bureau. For example things like Operation X-ray Outlaw Foreigner, the "Good Guys In, Bad Guys Out" initiative. He was as well the face of recent changes to the enforcement mechanisms associated with extension of Retirement Visas here in the Kingdom. "Big Joke" has made a lot of headlines and at the same time he has definitely been, as I said before, he's definitely been someone who has made a lot of changes within the Immigration apparatus. 

How exactly this is going to operate moving forward and exactly what kind of consequences this has from an Immigration standpoint remains to be seen. I suspect that nothing will change overnight with respect to Immigration enforcement or Immigration Policy but from somewhat of a longer-term perspective, I think that this could have rather long ranging implications for those who wish to remain in the Kingdom long-term. I also am going to be curious to see if the enforcement, how shall I say, events for lack of a better term, there were often times coordinated raids that were brought down under X-ray Outlaw Foreigner here in the Kingdom.  Whether or not these will continue, my instinct tells me that for the foreseeable future I think many of the changes will stay in place and I think many of the paradigm shifts that we have seen within Immigration lo these past few months and years probably are here to stay but that being said we will keep you updated as things progress and I will try to make more videos on this again as timely as possible.