Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing whether or not Thai Immigration has a Watchlist. Now this came up in the political realm and I am not going to get into all of that, but there was an interesting quote I found regarding this topic as a result of reading an article that was talking about this in a political context.

The article is titled: Immigration Bureau Denies Political Watchlist. This is from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, quoting directly: "People on the Immigration watchlist are persons declared by the IM Law, (I think they mean the Immigration Law) as persona non grata who are foreign nationals who have served a jail term in Thailand or overseas. They also include those attempting to enter Thailand who have been issued arrest warrants in other countries." I can say that things like overstay, you may be on the “watchlist”. Sometimes this may be called a Blacklist; folks that are not allowed to return to Thailand or folks that quite frankly they are looking for upon their return to Thailand because they may have outstanding criminal issues they may have to deal with, for example an arrest warrant. 

Now again, this was brought up in more of a political context. I am not going to get into all of that but for those who are out there who are expats, yeah there is a watchlist. We have done videos on the App System, the Advance Passenger Processing System that Thailand uses where they may even stop people from even being able to board a plane to come to Thailand because they are not permitted to travel into Thailand for various reasons. 

So yeah, there is this mechanism out there. It has substantial ramifications for those who may be considered for lack of a better term blacklisted. For example foreigners who may not be able to return to Thailand for whatever reason and yes I do believe that they keep a record, a database if you will of folks who are considered subject to scrutiny.