Transcript of the above: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Visa-free policies into Thailand, oftentimes called Visa exemption, so that is, depending on your passport, you don't really need a visa, you get into Thailand on your passport, and they just stamp you into the country. There's also what is called visa-on-arrival. I kind of lump this in with visa-free insofar as you don't have to get any kind of travel document generally speaking from your point of disembarkation, from wherever you are leaving from, but then you have to deal with a visa at a kiosk here at immigration in Thailand. You actually get a Visa sort of in the transit zone before coming through the immigration line and actually being stamped in in visa status. There is a difference between the two types of status; one is visa-exempt status, the other one is visa status, but it's a visa that was obtained in the transit zone coming into Thailand. So these are two very different things in a way, but I'm lumping them together under “Visa-free” policy. Then we are also comparing that to the issue of the DTV, the Destination Thailand Visa, and how in my opinion, that was rolled out, it was almost a publicity stunt in a way. It was a political, in my opinion determination that was made. It was entirely the creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that at the time was under the control of one faction if you will of the former governing coalition i.e. the Pheu Thai Party and I think that the DTV was largely created as a means of creating some political momentum behind the notion of Ms. Paetongtarn Shinawatra coming into office. Basically, at the time she was coming in, they rolled out the DTV basically in order to create an artificial spike in “tourism numbers” because all these people would rush into the DTV basically - and I will get to this in a moment - because there were a lot of nebulous for lack of a better term, promises made regarding the terms of the DTV that weren't really based on anything, because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not allow the Interior Ministry, or anybody for that matter that I can see, to chime in on these conditions associated with the DTV. This was just a creation by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then they sort of foisted all these foreigners upon internal Immigration Administration here in Thailand, just sort of put it on them to deal with it. But what it did in the very short term, it created a big spike in numbers of people coming into Thailand using that travel document which was then utilized by the Pheu Thai Party at the time, to sort of bolster Ms. Paetongtarn's image is probably the best way to put it. That's basically what happened. I documented it talking about it at the time. I got a ton of hate for it; I still get a ton of hate for it, whatever. I'm telling the truth. At the end of the day, this is what happened. If you look at this objectively, this Visa is ill created and it's having detrimental effects on Thailand's brand in terms of Tourism and as this Member of Parliament here in this article I'm going to cite points out, we are also have problems with these foreigners coming into Thailand who are now doing all kinds of things that they think that they can do, or they just don't care because they are here now and whatever, they don't want to, "oh the details of my status, I don't really care about". Long story short, it's causing some problems. 

That said, quoting directly from a recent article in The Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Phuket MP calls to revise 'visa-free' policy. Quote: "Phuket MP Chalermpong Saengdee has submitted a formal request urging the government to reconsider Thailand's Visa free policy listing concerns over rising incidents of inappropriate tourist behaviour and its impact on the province's image. Quote: "While the government visa-free measures, allowing tourists from many countries to travel to Thailand without a visa, have increased tourist numbers and revenue, they have also led to a number of inappropriate behaviours by tourists, including creating pornographic content, using drugs, causing disturbances, engaging in illegal activities and taking jobs from Thais," MP Chalermpong's formal request explained." Yeah, and this is where I would say, hey it's not just visa- free policy, let's focus specifically on the issue of the Destination Thailand Visa. Again entirely a creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They didn't ask for any input from the Ministry of Interior or the Labour Ministry here in Thailand. Later, when these folks started showing up in Thailand, Ministry of Interior as I quoted in another video, made a statement that said, "hey, any activity that “impinges upon the Thai economy” is considered work and you do need a Work Permit for that", so that clarified some of that. 

Meanwhile, we also saw developments where DTV holders are not allowed to get bank accounts and those that had bank accounts had their bank accounts frozen and closed because they were on a DTV Visa because again, you're not allowed to "impinge upon the economy” if you're on a DTV Visa, so why would you need a bank account? That actually is logically consistent if you think about the policy of Interior Ministry policy and then banking and then the Visa status itself, when you put them all together in the totality and analyze it, it makes sense. The problem with that is there's been blowback in terms of public opinion from the foreign community who utilized this Visa and I will admit there was nebulous language used primarily because again the Party in power at the time or I should say the Party in control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time who created this thing, were creating it for political end; they were creating it to create effectively a false spike in tourism numbers and they didn't really care about the aftermath. And we are in the aftermath now where we are dealing with these foreigners who came in under this nebulous notion that they didn't have to worry about things like, in certain circumstances, work authorization and now we are having all kinds of people that just think they can do whatever they want work wise, and they can't. They were never able to, that was never the case. Again, this is where bad policy has bad outcomes. 

That said, quoting further: "These behaviours damage the country's damage and impact residents in key tourist areas such as Phuket, Pattaya and Chiang Mai, and the country's main tourist destinations," he added. MP Chalermpong raise an example of reports from both domestic and international media, including the BBC documentary 'Thailand: The Dark Side of Paradise', that he said reflected Thailand's negative image as a result of low-quality tourists. Quote: "Therefore, I urge the new Prime Minister to reconsider the visa-free measure." And I would urge him to just re-look at a lot of these things, especially the DTV. Again, the DTV, it was created, these people are coming in with frankly unreasonable and false expectations, because again they were kind of sold a bill of goods through the nebulous sort of advertising associated with the DTV when it was created. It's time to look at that as well as Visa-free. Frankly, I think for the most part, I won't say Visa-free doesn't have its own issues and I expect this Member of Parliament has studied it far deeper than I have and he is well aware of what the issues are, but I think another problem here is also DTV. We need to look at that as well as this visa-free thing generally. Quoting further: "Measures should be implemented to screen quality tourists, ensuring Thailand truly benefits from tourism while mitigating long-term damage." Yeah, absolutely, and frankly that's another issue with the DTV. The requirements on it, depending on which one you are going for, there's the cultural one, or soft power or whatever they call that; what does that thing even mean? And what are the criteria for that? Then meanwhile, when you get to the nebulous nature of everything they sold associated with it, like how long do you actually get to be here. The way it was sort of presented at the time, was you have got to remember the background that they were also trying for this sort of pan-ASEAN Visa so when this thing came to the foreground, it was sort of presented within the frame of "oh there are nomads that are going to come to ASEAN and they are going to bounce in and out of Thailand. Let's create a Visa that makes that more convenient." It was not billed as "oh this is going to be a Visa you can use to live in Thailand". And if you look at the terms of it, multiple usages of it in what we would call in the American Visa context or American Immigration context, the use of a “Carousel Visa” that's oftentimes described when they talk about six-month multi-entry, or I should say 10-year multi-entry tourist visas, where people try to use them every six months and then do like a one day or two day Border Run, come back in to America, try to live another six months. Again, they don't like it in that Immigration system, I expect we're going to see similar results here in the Thai Immigration system, probably coming sooner rather than later as we are getting to past the one-year anniversary, or we are getting up to the 18-month anniversary of the creation of this thing where we are going to see more of these folks who are trying to use it on a carousel basis, I expect they are not going to have the outcomes that they expect, and frankly again it was billed as if it was not going to be used as a permanent visa, hence the reason again you can't get banking facilities and things on it because it's not supposed to be something you are using to live in Thailand. It is supposed to be you are bouncing in and out on it. Again, this whole nomad notion isn't the best way to set good national immigration policy in my opinion. In a lot of ways I think this whole “nomad” thing was a creation of a bunch of globalists who just want to be able to run around and sort of, I don't know float around on the cream if you will of the global society, or whatever but frankly that's a society that might have existed 25 years ago. It's been in flux since that time and frankly I don't even think that the notion of being a nomad in that way is apropos for the moment we are living in, and I especially don't think it's really apropos or appropriate analysis for looking into the future, because I just don't think that the world is going to be real conducive to that as time moves on. 

That said, the point I am trying to make with this video is again not necessarily to just look at Visa-free policy, but maybe the broader Immigration system as a whole, but really heavy scrutiny needs to be applied to the DTV because of the way it was created, the way that nobody really has the correct expectations, that is using it has really, the expectations that were created and that were inherently put into the Visa itself, a lot of the people that got this Visa, I don't want to necessarily say they were misled, but it was pretty disingenuous the way that it was sold to these folks. I don't blame the people using the Visa; that's another misconception that seems to be out there. Do what you want, and if you feel that that's the best visa for you and the facts of your case, fine go for it. But the point I'm trying to make is it was sold a certain way, at a certain time, by people that were just eager to get it online and didn't really care about the consequences and now we are having to deal with the consequences, and they are not great, as is being pointed out by this Member of Parliament. 

Quoting further: "Phuket has been in the news recently mostly because of scandals. Reports include Russians hiring Thais to make adult content in the back of pickup trucks, and a Russian man dancing naked in Patong after taking mushrooms. These incidents have attracted a lot of attention. "Honestly these are just reported cases. Many more go unnoticed, escaping both authorities and public scrutiny. But they all follow similar patterns of disruptive behaviour," MP Chalermpong said." Yeah, I think he has got a point there. Quoting further: "He stressed that while many tourists are positive contributors to Phuket's economy, the undeniable rise in problematic behaviour is largely due to the visa-free policy." And I think you could say the same thing about DTV specifically. There are folks that are on the DTV that are fine, but at the same time there are a lot of folks that I think are using it, especially when you look into work issues, and I think that's going to be of increasingly acute concern to Thais as again we are moving through sort of the doldrums of the global economy. Quoting further: "It's not just Phuket; other major tourist provinces face similar challenges. Some individuals even pose as tourists while engaging in illegal activities, shady businesses or taking jobs from Thais," he said." So again, the DTV in my opinion in some cases is being used in a similar manner. Quote: "We must review Thailand's Visa-free policy and screen tourists to allow only high-quality visitors. Otherwise, we'll continue addressing issues reactively, after serious problems have already harmed Thailand's tourism image." Again, I have to wonder if you couldn't just insert DTV where he has Visa-free there, but I agree with his sentiments on both counts. Quoting further: "Screening at the source is far better, even if it can't completely eliminate troublemakers," he added. "The Visa-free free policy must be reviewed before Thailand suffers irreparable losses," he concluded.

And yeah, and I would say DTV needs to be reviewed as well because look there is negative publicity to Thailand's brand. For example, I've seen a ton of videos on YouTube since the development that DTV holders not only can't have bank accounts, but we are seeing their bank accounts closed due to their visa status. And again that caused blowback and bad publicity for Thailand and makes it look like the Visa system is something that overall is not overly reliable when in reality, it was just this ill-created, ill-conceived Visa program that was created primarily for instantaneous political gain by one particular faction, political faction here in Thailand. I think a review of all of it would be a good idea. I tend to agree with this MP's position overall. Hopefully this will happen, and it will occur with good results for Thailand but we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.