Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, and it may not be overly clear to folks who are not really aware of what is going on down in Phuket specifically, but we are talking about ‘red cards’ and ‘yellow cards’ in the context of Thai Immigration. Let me get into what we are talking about. I am going to quote directly from the Phuket News, that's thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: 'Red card' system launched for 'bad foreigners' in Phuket. And yet again, the Phuket News just did an excellent job on reporting on this. The Phuket News, when I do kind of read what they are talking about down there I am very impressed with specifically their reporting on things. Bangkok Post, just as good; Pattaya Mail can be very good as well; Chiang Rai Times, there are different publications that are very good. 

I don't oftentimes focus on Phuket, we are based up here primarily in the Bangkok area and then we sort of deal with the Eastern Corridor, maybe kind of the Hua Hin, maybe even up to Chiang Mai, out in Esan, we handle stuff up there, Phuket is just a ways away. We just don't really interact with Phuket Immigration very often. More and more we are, we do have clients that are down there and request assistance from us down there but like on a day to day basis I am not overly worried about Phuket. A lot of folks via comments and just talking to me, have been asking me about this. I was kind of delaying talking about it because I was kind of hoping it would go away honestly, but no it doesn't appear to be going away so what are we talking about here? Again I am going to quote directly from thephuketnews.com, quote: "Police Major General Praphansak Prasansuk, Commander of the Immigration Region 6 Office which oversees Immigration Affairs in Phuket, announced the new system at a press conference today (Mar 1)." Quoting further: "Under the system, a foreigner will be designated a 'yellow card' for a first offense. The Foreigner will be issued a formal warning and the relevant Embassy will be notified, Maj Gen Praphansak said." After the Foreigner completed the current stay and left the country, The foreigner will be denied permission to stay in Thailand for the next visit on the basis that the foreigner had conducted an unlawful act that "caused trouble and behaved (in a bad way) that is a threat to society". Now let me go ahead, this is me talking now. I'll get back into this and do further analysis but let's start off. What does a 'yellow card' mean? Apparently based on what is being reported here and I think the Phuket News is a very reliable source, Thai Immigration in Phuket, if you are caught engaging in some sort of minor offense and we will get into some of the nuts and bolts of that a little later in this video and even in later videos. I think I am going to do another one or two, doing a deep dive into this because there is a lot of Immigration Law implications here let's talk about the practicalities to start with. It looks like if you get a 'yellow card', okay you will be cited for that and you will be allowed to basically remain in Thailand for the remainder of your stay but when you leave, you are not going to be able to return again because "conducted an unlawful act that caused trouble and behaved in a way that is a threat to society". I don't know what that means. Is that a black listing forever? Is that a 90 day, you're not going to be able to come back in? Is it a year? That remains unclear.

Quoting further: "If a foreigner is found guilty of a second offense during the same period of stay, the foreigner will have the permit to stay in Thailand revoked and will be sent back to their home country, Maj Gen Praphansak said." Quoting further: "However, critical to the policy announced today, Maj Gen Praphansak did not define exactly what level of or type of crime or "unlawful act" would be considered for a first or second offense." Quoting further: "Of note, the types of offenses mentioned at the press conference focused on traffic violations such as not wearing a helmet while riding a motorbike, not having the proper driver's license and dangerous driving." 

So it appears that this is sort of related to driving offenses primarily or one aspect of this seems to be related to driving offenses. Now I am not going to get too deep into this in this video. I am going to make another one on this where I do the analysis diving deep into Immigration discretion regarding these types of matters. But let me just say, suffice it to say, Immigration has a lot of discretion with regard to matters pertaining to Public Health and Safety as well as threats to National Security and what they deem to be such a threat, it is pretty fluid, it is pretty fluid by any plain language reading of the Act it's clear Immigration Authorities in Thailand have a great deal of power and discretion when it comes to issues pertaining to foreigners especially where foreigners might be breaking a law, even minor law in Thailand. 

So exactly how this is going to play out remains to be seen. It always seems like these kinds of things get promulgated as we are going into "Low Season". Then they just kind of build to a fever pitch in the Press. I don't think it ever does much good for the country as a whole especially in terms of the tourism sector because people reading about Thailand and things may pick up on this and say "oh my gosh, I can get kicked out of the country forever if I am riding around on a motorbike without a helmet on!" and that may or may not be the case. I don't think that is really going to be the case as a practical matter on a day-to-day basis but you may see cases where that does in fact happen to someone. Again, we will keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves. For now especially if you are in Phuket, be aware this 'red card', 'yellow card' policy appears to be in place.