Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing that is sort of a pandemic if you will of fake foreign passports in Thailand? What are we talking about?  

I thought of making this video after reading multiple articles. I'm not going to fully cite all of them but in the aggregate, I think you can see what what's going on; there's a phenomenon clearly afoot here. Quoting directly from a recent article in the Phuket News, that thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Afghans caught using fake Kazakh passports. Two Afghan men were arrested at Phuket International Airport yesterday, (Dec 9) for attempting to leave the country on forged Kazakhstan passports. Meanwhile, in another article again from the Phuket News, thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Syrian woman arrested for using fake Italian passport. Immigration officers at Phuket International Airport have arrested a 27-year-old Syrian woman found attempting to enter the country on a fake Italian passport. So, I read those first two articles and I decided to go ahead and make this video. And then in the meantime, between the time I had read them and the time it takes sort of prep to do videos and we got set up, I read another article, again quoting from the Phuket News , that is thephuketnews.com, article is titled: Four more Afghans caught using fake Kazakh passports. Quoting directly: "Four more Afghanistan Nationals have been arrested for using forged Kazakh passports while attempting to enter the country at Phuket International Airport." Wow okay. So apparently there's a plethora of fake foreign passports out there at the moment. Apparently there seems to be some sort of nexus point with Kazakhstan. 

That being said, the point I think for this video is look, the era of being able to use fake passports I think has kind of come and gone. What are we talking about? Well look, biometrics plus digitization has effectively eroded out the ability to continue be able to do that. I am not saying that everything is foolproof and that everything is perfect, but look, this is a major sea change. We have seen a lot of different operational capabilities with respect to Thai Immigration in the aftermath of changes, especially in the aftermath of biometrics. And as we have also discussed, Thailand has the PIBIC system, it has the APPS system. It is very, very sophisticated; it is very, very focused on an enforcement type of paradigm with regard to Thai Immigration.

I think, I guess the point of this video is look you really can't be using fake foreign passports, because as a practical matter, they are no longer effective. Also, what, you want to end up like detained, possibly imprisoned here? Possibly imprisoned in your home country? Look at the end of the day, if you're looking to come to Thailand, if you are looking to use a fake passport, it might not be a terrible idea to look for another jurisdiction.