Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Immigration or I should say the Authorities in Thailand cracking down on foreigners working illegally. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Illegal Migrants Caught at Pattaya Market. I am going to quote a small excerpt from this article. I urge those who are watching this video, if you are interested go check out that article, read it in detail. Quoting directly: "Seven illegal migrants were arrested during a police raid on the largest fresh market in Pattaya, talad Amon Nakhon in Bang Lamung district, on Wednesday morning. The 6:00 am operation by Bang Lamung and Immigration Police and Labour Officials was aimed at illegal migrants working in shops at the market." 

So at first glance, I think there's a lot of Farang, so-called Western foreigners, Western folks here in Thailand, Western expats, immigrants, tourists whatever that would look at this and say 'oh they are just going after migrant workers that come from the neighboring countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and say 'they are going after them, they are not looking at us!' Don't take that view. As we will be making videos forthcoming and there is other news out there on this, yeah Thai Immigration is not just interested in migrant workers who are coming over the border and working illegally in Thailand.  They are very, very serious about work authorization issues in Thailand most notably because the economy is still recovering. After the lockdowns and everything where it effectively decimated the Tourism sector as we have discussed at length, I won't go into further detail there but yeah the Thai Immigration Officials I think are getting very serious, not just Immigration, Labour Department as well, the Department of Employment, very serious about inspecting, scrutinizing and where necessary detaining and deporting folks who are working illegally in Thailand. 

So if you are looking to come to Thailand and you are looking to work here, really in any capacity, it is a very good idea to look at getting work authorization. It can be confusing and there are a million ways to skin a cat; some things are going to work for some folks, some things won't, there are going to be various options for maintaining long-term status in Thailand and even putting oneself on the path to Permanent Residence or even the path to Citizenship but the path begins with getting into regularized status, getting into lawful Visa status and getting employment authorization. So the thing to take away from this video is if you are looking to work in Thailand, get your ducks in a row because failure to do so could result in maybe never being able to come back to Thailand again.