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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawVisa NewsImmigration Raids in Penang, Malaysia Net Thai Overstayers

Immigration Raids in Penang, Malaysia Net Thai Overstayers

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Penang, Malaysia and the Immigration Authorities in Malaysia as opposed to Thailand this time. 

The reason I am making this video is I wanted to provide some nuance. We talk a lot about Thai Immigration and I think sometimes people fail to grasp that other countries have an Immigration apparatus as well and other countries take illegal immigration just as seriously as Thailand does. 

In a recent article from Bernama, the article was titled: 36 Foreigners Detained in Raids at Siamese Restaurants' Outlets. Quoting directly, "Five Thai Nationals who are working a Thai restaurant in Jalan Hashim Awang ran helter-skelter with ladles still in their hands to escape arrest in an integrated operation conducted by the Immigration Department yesterday. However, the law managed to catch up with them and they were arrested in the 10 p.m. raid. Penang Immigration Director Muhamad Husni Mahmud said the Thai Nationals, all men aged between 25 and 34, had valid travel documents but had overstayed and were without a valid work permit".  That is a pretty common thing that people are caught for in illegal immigration raids here in the Kingdom. "All of them were sent to the Penang Immigration Office for documentation and then to the Immigration Depot in Juru for further action he added."  I suspect they were probably all deported. 

The reason I am making this video is to provide some nuance and also make it clear, Thailand is not the only jurisdiction in Southeast Asia that is increasingly keen to monitor those who are in their country illegally. I didn't mean to point out Thais specifically as being illegal in Malaysia but for example Cambodia is tightening up the immigration apparatus. They are introducing a TM30 style address reporting for foreigners. Vietnam has been extremely strict on immigration; arguably stricter than Thailand has ever been. It just is sort of the nature of the beast.

So again the thing to take away from this video. Thailand is not the only place in South East Asia which takes immigration matters seriously as down in Malaysia we are seeing Thais being caught up in raids for illegally living and working in that jurisdiction.

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