Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing folks basically having their overstays being waived in light of this issue in the Middle East. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thousands of tourists stranded amid Middle East upheaval. Quoting directly: "Ratchaporn Poolsawadee, TCT's Vice President" - and the TCT is the tourism Council of Thailand - "said that more than 1,000 tourists are expected to extend their days in Samui or Koh Phangan due to flight cancellations. Most of the tourists impacted up in the Middle East, Israel, Europe or the United States, utilizing an aviation hub in the Middle East. Over half of Samui's visitors are from these markets. The council is also coordinating with officials, including the Immigration Bureau, to assist tourists who may have to overstay their visas. Natthriya Thaweevong, permanent Secretary of Tourism and Sports, said the Ministry and the private sector have launched a survey of travellers stranded in tourism hotspots to determine whether they require any assistance."

Yeah, I saw something else and I had a hard time finding it again, but there was some spokesperson out there that said, "hey, these folks are guests in Thailand; we need to treat them accordingly. We need to help them; they are in a time of need sort of thing." And I think that's a great attitude to have, but the point here, not unlike COVID by the way. We saw under the Emergency Decree at the time, Thai Immigration Officers were being permitted to just sort of - it wasn't exactly waiving overstay - but they could extend visas in ways that theretofore they were unable to extend; basically Thai Immigration Officers’ discretion was broadened, the scope of their discretion was broaden during especially the initial year of COVID in 2020 and there was a lot of chaos with visas. I remember it. It was a really weird time in our office, and I expect that we will see some fallout from this situation when we see folks that are having troubles with their visas. But rest assured, Thai Immigration has actually dealt with this before. If there's one silver lining if you will to COVID it is that this notion that they can waive these overstay problems and things has been largely streamlined and kind of cleared up. At that time, there was some question over whether or not that discretion was valid, but ultimately it was decided it was because there were extenuating circumstances. 

In this situation, I think that we will probably see a much less chaotic Immigration sort of situation with regard to these folks that may find themselves in overstay, as again it looks to me like they have streamlined the ability of Immigration to grant those folks on-going status or just waive the overstay itself in light of the current events.

One thing I'm hoping for is that things stabilize in the Middle Eastern sooner rather than later, and hopefully things will revert back to sort of the status quo ante. It remains to be seen and that may be being overly optimistic under the current circumstances; it's hard to say. We are very much in what I can only describe as the fog of War at the moment, so difficult to make any presumptions or speculations about how this will play out. But rest assured to those foreigners who have been stranded in Thailand because of all of this, the Thai Government is taking this seriously. They are doing 2,000-baht stipends capping that out at 20,000 Baht; I made another video contemporaneously with this one going into that. They are also again waiving overstay fines; they are assisting folks in finding on-going accommodation for those folks have been stranded here, again for folks that are genuinely stranded here. But that said, it's clear to me that Thai Immigration takes this not only seriously, but they also understand that these folks are in a bad position and it's probably better to be accommodating rather than try cause these people any more problems which I don't think it's a good idea to foist overstay fines or problems due to overstay on people that can't get back home. It's sort of like that movie The Terminal where Tom Hanks; there was a coup in his country, and he gets stuck in an airport terminal. I mean that didn't help anybody and I don't think Thailand wants to do that; clearly, she has demonstrated she's not doing that. Frankly they started acting with great alacrity to deal with this pretty much from the moment we started seeing flights and things shut down. The Immigration apparatus as well policy makers in the Tourism and Sports Ministry seemed to just jump on it and start moving on getting these stipends dealt with and dealing with accommodation and things. 

So tip of the hat to those folks, and those foreigners who are in Thailand and you are a little bit apprehensive about what's going to happen next, please know that if you are genuinely stranded here, Immigration is going to make accommodation and there are mechanisms in place to accommodate folks who have been stranded due to this situation in the Middle East, stranded here in the Kingdom of Thailand.