Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing well Labour Law here in Thailand and I think it is a bit of a misnomer. People don't really understand the interaction between the Department of Labour and the Immigration Bureau. They both have law enforcement powers within their bailiwick and sometimes without if it sort of bumps into their bailiwick they may have some arrest powers tangential to what they would normally be authorized to sort of investigate and scrutinize. Long story short, if you are looking to work in Thailand and especially you are trying to circumvent the rules you got to understand there is not just one body out there, not just one organization or institution that is scrutinizing that. It is not just Thai Immigration, let me. 

I am going to go ahead and quote an article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, and I will get into some analysis. Quoting directly, the article is titled: Surge in Prosecutions for Asian Foreign Workers in Thailand. Quoting directly: "Although the Immigration Bureau is perceived as the main Agency for catching foreigners snatching Thai jobs, the Department of Employment has its own teams of investigators. Their October 2022 - March 2023 report says 685 employment venues were prosecuted and a total of 1,550 people prosecuted." Now bear in mind that is October 2022. That is the end of the Emergency Decree up to basically now that we have seen 1,550 people prosecuted associated with Work Permit violations. Quoting further: "The number of Europeans, Americans and Australians arrested during this period by DoE Officers was very small and around 20 individuals." 

I would, this is me talking, I would, 20 individuals is not small when you consider again the Emergency Decree ended in October 2022, we are now in March 2023. You don't turn these things on a dime so the day after the Emergency Decree came to an end, DoE didn't just run out and start looking at everyone. These things take a minute. So 20 foreigners that are sort of a western origin being arrested for work optimization violations, that is not an insignificant number to my mind. Yes, it is insignificant compared to 1,550 people total, but you have got to remember the number of migrants, foreign migrants that come in and work in Thailand who originate from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar primarily, although Malaysia down South some, that is a huge number of people compared to the relatively small number of foreigners that come to Thailand to work. So yes, while 20 is comparatively small, you have to look at it in context to understand that is not insignificant, that is really not insignificant. Quoting further: "This may have been because the inspection appears to have been principally aimed at illegal working and selling goods, hairdressing, driving vehicles and massage. These activities are popular with Asian economic migrants. However, the report does not include” (and this is key, “the report does not included arrests by Immigration Police during the 6 months period. Immigration command does not routinely produce statistics on its arrests." Yeah, that is well said. Immigration is not well known for putting out a lot of information pertaining to arrests for things like even overstay and folks that are arrested on other crimes and ultimately deported, as well as work authorization violations. 

What does that mean? Well it means if you are looking to come to Thailand to work, you need to get your ducks in a row; you need to get proper work authorization. You do not want to be someone who is running around with the thought of arrest and detention hanging over your head in Thailand and quite honestly it is not the most fun process to deal with work authorization. We deal with it all the time here on behalf of clients. It is not something that you really love doing. I mean I liken it to dealing with one's taxes or going to the DMV to get their driver's license renewed, not something you particularly want to do but it is something you need to do if you want to mitigate or just outright avoid the prospect of being detained and possibly deported for working illegally here in the Kingdom of Thailand.