Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, well, we're discussing the issue of foreign prisoners in Thailand. I actually thought of making this video after reading a recent posting on X from Sunny BKK Dude that's @bkkdude on X and posted: Foreign Prisoners in Thai Prisons by Nationality (2024). So bear in mind, this is 2024, but it is interesting data - and I will throw this up on screen - interesting data. Foreign Prisoners by Nationality (2024 data) 

Foreign inmates are predominantly from neighbouring countries, with the breakdown as follows: Nationality: Myanmar 52.9%, again share of foreign prisoners; that's not total population of all prisoners in Thailand. No, I don't think 52% of all the prisoners in Thailand are from Myanmar but of the foreigners in prison, 52.9% of them are from Myanmar; 11.9% are from Laos; 9.7% from Cambodia; 4.2% from China; 1.8% from Nigeria; 1.6% from Malaysia; 1.5% from Vietnam and then down here under "other nationalities" in total of all the other nationalities, you are looking at 16.4%. and the source for this is Thailand Department of Corrections as cited in Thailand Annual Prison Report 2025 (data as of December 2024). 

So as of December 2024, the total of the rest of all the foreign prisoners in Thailand totalled out to 16.4% of foreign prisoners. So actually, strictly speaking, the number of foreigners in Thai prison that are Western, you know European, Anglosphere, English-speaking World, whatever, the total number still only comes out to 16.4% of the total number of all foreigners in Thai prisons. So it's a relatively low number. 

Now there could be some speculation on "well, since we've seen some antics of foreigners behaving badly, in the meantime could that be contributing to higher numbers subsequent to December of 2024? Possibly. I kind of doubt it. Now because what I think the vast majority of incidents involving foreigners behaving badly here in Thailand probably are going to just result in deportation or a minor detention followed by a deportation, rather than actual incarceration and imprisonment. It's been my experience, and again tertiarily where I have sort of been in a supporting role while we have had clients that are being assisted by Thai Attorneys that are dealing with criminal matters here in the office and here in Thailand, it's been my experience that most judges actually want to get folks out, in terms of, "Okay, you did what you did. There may be some requisite amount of detention time necessary, but again it's not often that you see judges or folks in a position of adjudicating matters pertaining to whether or not somebody should be detained in Thailand, generally speaking the default is, "let's just get them out of here; let's just deport them and Blacklist them" and we basically don't want to have to support them while they're incarcerated etc. So that may factor in to some of this. Also, the fact that again, Westerners just may not actually make up a huge number of folks that end up getting imprisoned in Thailand. I think that's fairly safe to say in terms of the total population of all foreigners because again, you are dealing with neighbouring countries and things of that nature.

That said, look as I've discussed in other videos, the finding of these two arms - depending on who you talk to, "cache", "cach" whatever - a stockpile of arms being found on foreign nationals, issues associated with nominee companies rising to the level of national security, all of this is contributing to a situation where yeah, we probably will see more detentions of foreigners here in Thailand, although as I said previously, I expect that's more likely to result in deportation and likely blacklisting than actual long-term imprisonment here in the Kingdom of Thailand.