Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Immigration Crackdowns yet again. I am kind of doing a round up here.

We are in 2020 now and I think moving forward although we are not in the heyday of the "Big Joke" era where we saw the roundups and the enforcement activity we saw back then, we are still seeing a lot of foreigners being cited for overstay, being deported, blacklisted etc.  Thailand is no longer a soft touch with respect to Immigration matters. I have explained this in other videos where once I think they had the paradigm that Immigration was kind of an administrative thing, now I think it is fairly safe to presume that they are looking at Immigration as more of a law enforcement function. 

So all three of these articles I am going to be quoting are from thaivisa.com although they are originally translated from different websites and I will provide them as we are going through this. One article is titled Happy New Year... Immigration Swoop on 83 Year-old Brit on 4,929 Day Overstay. Quoting directly: "Immigration Police led by Prachuab Kiri Khan Commander Police Colonel Sutthipong Putthipong paid a visit to an 83 year-old British pensioner on New Year's Day. He was on over stay of more than 13 years; 4,929 days to be precise. Police Colonel Sutthipong revealed that he was acting on orders from Thailand Immigration Chief Lieutenant-General Sompong Chingduang to rid Thailand of unwanted criminal elements and foster peace and stability in the Kingdom.”  The thing to keep in mind, less to do with the folks involved in this, or the specific facts is keep in mind the overall theme of this because again the thing to keep in mind, this is seen much more is a law enforcement function now compared to an administrative function which I think it was viewed as in the past. That article was originally translated from Naewna, that's naewna.com. 

Another article which also came from the same source, it was translate from the same source now naewna.com but it's on thaivisa.com and translated and we certainly thank them for that. I will quote a small piece here this is "Robin Hood" American Arrested on 3-year Overstay.  “Naewna reported the arrest of an American on a near 3-year overstay yesterday. Naewna then said that the arrest was part of the policy from the top to rid Thailand of unwanted foreign lawbreakers." So again they are taking a much more proactive approach with respect to over stayers, folks that have been blacklisted, or folks that are working illegally and they go on to note that. 

In this final article, I am going to read, again it is thaivisa.com but this time they are translating from Bangkok Biz News that's bangkokbiznews.com and that article is titled: 2020: Crackdown on Tourists Working Without Work Permits- 50k Fines and Deportation Awaits. Quoting directly:  “Chatumongkol's Department of Employment that issues Work Permits will be teaming up with Royal Thai Police, the Immigration Bureau, and the Department of Provincial Administration to flush out lawbreakers from Thailand. The public have been urged to contact the Department of Employment to report offenders on 0-2354 -1729, contact 10 Regional Offices or phone the hotline on 1506 extension 2.” So now even Labour has a hotline with respect to the illegal working. 

The thing to take away from this video is crackdowns continue, enforcement activities continue here in Thailand and compared to past years this enforcement is much more pronounced in my opinion. I don't think it is going to go away and I don't think that we are going to see a change in the paradigm of Thai Immigration officials that these matters are a law enforcement function and not simply an administrative function as they were viewed in the past.