Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing a recent sweep by Thai Immigration that resulted in the arrest of 12 foreigners here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: 12 arrested in Phuket Immigration sweep. Quoting directly: "Phuket Immigration have arrested a dozen foreigners found violating the Immigration Act or working illegally in a series of inspections carried out over two weeks. 

As I have said in other videos, look at the end of the day, Thai Immigration is looking for Work Permit violations; they are looking for overstayers; they're very serious about their mandate to enforce Immigration Law. Quoting directly: "Immigration Officers ramped up their efforts to crack down on illegal activities involving foreign nationals over the course of half a month, from October 9 - 18, said a report by the Phuket Branch of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket). Officers inspected 22 locations across the island, including establishments and residences where foreign nationals frequently gather. A total of 621 foreigners were checked, and 12 foreigners were arrested for violating the Immigration Act or the Emergency Decree on Management of Foreign Workers 2017."

Yeah, as we discussed in other videos, and this is going to deal with even people on some of these new visas because at the end of the day, look work authorization is issued by those here in Thailand specifically with the Labour Department when a Work Permit is issued. I know there's a lot of talk on the internet by a lot of folks that work authorization is inherent to various types of visas. You may want to do your research on that because as we have discussed, the whole work authorization thing associated with for example the Destination Thailand Visa, a lot of people apparently do not understand, you are not work authorized to work in Thailand. If you are working remotely for something that is occurring abroad, again in the past we used to have to say "well strictly speaking, if you are on your computer doing emails or corresponding with somebody abroad, that technically needs work authorization. The new DTV has sort of created a niche whereby that doesn't actually happen. That being said, I don't know where they get their authority to do that because again, they are not the Ministry of Labour but never mind, fine, let's presume that is the case although we will just presume it for practical purposes at the moment; I expect this could change down the line. 

But long story short, yeah you need a Work Permit to work in Thailand and as noted in this article, and I urge those who are watching it to read it, if you don't have a Work Permit, it is illegal to engage in employment or occupations here in Thailand. Even with the Work Permit certain occupations are restricted; I have gotten into that in other videos. But long story short, look Immigration is serious about enforcement of people working legally here in the Kingdom of Thailand.