Transcript of the above: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing illegal entry, deportation and Thailand's Immigration Blacklist. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Chinese call-centre scammers arrested for illegal entry. Quoting directly: "Fourteen Chinese nationals suspected of involvement in call-centre scams in Cambodia have been arrested at a hotel in Nonthaburi after entering Thailand illegally." Now the illegal entry is the part that is really the crux of this video; I'll get to it here in a moment. That said, quoting further: "They were taken into custody by Officers of Provincial Police Region 1 and Nonthaburi Immigration at a hotel on Ngam Wongwan soi 19 in Tambon Bang Khen of Muang District, on Monday afternoon. Following interrogation, the suspects were all initially charged with illegal entry, then handed over to investigators at Rattanathibet Police Station for further legal action. The clashes is between Thai and Cambodian troops along the border late last year reportedly prompted many Chinese call-centre scam gangs operating in Cambodia to flee the country. Some reportedly crossed illegally into Thailand, led by guides along natural pathways, as they attempted to relocate to a third country." Yeah, okay. 

So the point of this video, and I urge those who are watching this video, if you're interested in the substance of what happened to these scammers and such, I made another video contemporaneously with this one; you can get into that. Also go to the article itself. Bangkok Post’s reporting on that, it's quite exhaustive in terms of the information there.  

But the point of this video is to understand that illegal entry is actually kind of interesting because for purposes of The Blacklist, I expect these folks will probably ultimately be deported. If it's decided that they should be affirmatively Blacklisted, they probably will be, and in fact I would bet they will end up Blacklisted. But the point of this video is to point out the fact that illegal entry actually creates something of a nebulous state of affairs if you will, for purposes of determining Blacklisting. And what am I talking about? Well in order to be placed on The Blacklist under The Blacklist rules that were initially promulgated, what are we going back to now, 9 years, 10 years ago now at this point, there was a time when there was no Blacklist. I remember, I think this channel was actually coming online right around the time that was coming into force, so yeah, it's been a while, but again it's relatively new. I remember when this was brought online and you have to actually go over 90 days of overstay for the initial type of Blacklist mechanism to be triggered for a voluntary departure. Now, if you're caught in-country on overstay by even one day you can be automatically blacklisted for 5 years. But here's where illegal entry is interesting. How do you tabulate how long somebody has been on overstay if the entry itself was illegal? It's sort of like what we have in the American Immigration context, at least we used to with regard to what are called F-1 Student Visas, a person could end up over in what's called "duration of status". They cannot be timed if you will for overstay because their status is "duration of status"; there is no place to start the clock if you will. The same goes in a way for illegal entry here in Thailand. The fact that you can't tabulate a number of days makes it, let's call it bureaucratically nettlesome, to then define that person as having exceeded a certain amount of time in Thailand and therefore clearly be defined by The Blacklist. 

Now I expect that Immigration will utilize their discretion in determining that yeah, look these folks will probably end up Blacklisted anyway, but they are not going to be Blacklisted necessarily based on a specific amount of time in overstay in Thailand; there is a difference there. Illegal entry does not allow for tabulation of time in overstay because the initial entry, one oftentimes can't be determined and also, because they were essentially on overstay from the beginning but that then creates the nebulous situation of well, if we tabulate a Blacklisting based on time in overstay, then it makes it problematic for determining Blacklisting. The problem for these folks though is they have already been arrested in Thailand. So as I have said, if nothing else applies, it would be the rule that even one day of overstay and being arrested in Thailand rather than voluntarily departing, results in a five-year Blacklisting. So one way or the other, I think they are going to be blacklisted but I wanted to make this video in order to point out the nebulous nature of illegal entry and how it has this kind of odd warping effect on the standard blacklisting rules here in the Kingdom of Thailand.