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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawThai Immigration Bureau Increases Airport Enforcement Activities

Thai Immigration Bureau Increases Airport Enforcement Activities

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests we are going to be discussing the Thai Immigration Bureau specifically their activities at the airports here in Thailand.

A recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the title “Airport Immigration Procedures Surge. Quoting directly "the Immigration Bureau saw the number of immigration clearance procedures rise to 41.9 million or a 31.33% increase in the first half of this year. Quoting further, "In terms of criminal suppression, the IB, in the first half of the year, detained a total of 156 suspects including 12 foreigners. A total of 3,461 foreigners suspected to pose a threat to Thailand's National Security including 30 sex offenders, have been denied entry to Thailand over the past 6 months. To keep pace with the extra workload, the Immigration Bureau has accelerated training aimed at improving skills of Immigration Officers and preparing them to cope with the expected rise in the other half of the year." Quoting further "The IB is also being ordered to step up measures in order to deal with criminal suspects and fugitives who are categorized as “unwanted persons". I think of further note," the IB has also recruited a total of 254 new officers to add to its current work force."  There is a great deal more information in detail in that article. I urge folks who are watching this video to go check that article out and read it in detail. 

What I take away from this is the same thing that I take away from most of the recent developments with respect to Immigration here in the Kingdom and that is Thai officials are very serious about tightening up the Immigration apparatus in the Kingdom. The airport is sort of the "first line of defense", for lack of a better term, with respect to Immigration and they are clearly pouring a significant amount of resources into beefing up that "line of defense", that point of entry. Something that I found interesting that was mentioned in the article but it is of note just sort of on its own. A couple, probably 6 or 7 months ago, Thailand basically, at least the Immigration checkpoints at Don Muang airport and the Immigration checkpoints, some of them at Suvarnabhumi Airport were kind of pilloried in the press and on Twitter and social media because of long delays due to lack of personnel. As noted, over 250 folks have been recruited into the Immigration Bureau so clearly they are increasing their personnel but it should also be noted that there are a number of people being turned away now by Thai immigration, there are a number of people who are being detained, there are a number of people who are being deported. As it was noted in the article, "unwanted persons", they're basically looking at people trying to decide if they are coming to Thailand for legitimate purposes or in some cases are they just trying to skirt Immigration regulations and live here without having proper documentation. All of these things, it is just part of an overarching theme of Immigration Enforcement Officers basically again turning up the heat, if you want to use that term, ratcheting up their activities with respect to basically Immigration enforcement with respect to basically all the activities associated with tightening up the system, keeping out those folks that really don't have any reason to be in the Kingdom for a lawful purpose. Again as I have noted in other videos I think that this is going to continue, this trend will continue at least in the near-term because I just simply seen more resources being allocated to this issue and I frankly see basically a situation where Immigration enforcement has had a sea change with respect to their paradigm and they almost consider immigration violators as a species of criminal if you will, rather than just sort of a regulatory issue, and for that reason I think we are going to see more of this moving forward but we will keep you updated with videos as things progress.