Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the prospect of possibly being arrested in Thailand if you try to avoid quarantine as a tourist coming to Thailand. 

I found some information on this topic in a recent article from the Bangkok Post-print edition. This is from Monday September 21, 2020. The article is titled: Phuket Targets Long Stay Scandinavians.  This is one of those set of circumstances where I sort of found some nuggets of information that were kind of buried in the wider story and what we are talking about here doesn't pertain directly to the overall theme of this article. I urge those who are watching this video to go check out that article again: Phuket Targets Long Stay Scandinavians is the title. 

Within the body of this, let me quote directly:“Phichet Panaphong, Deputy Phuket Governor said the province is now ready to welcome foreign tourists and only waiting for approval from the Government. Quoting further: "Mr. Phichet insisted that health and safety of the general public must come before tourism benefits, adding that all quarantine facilities must comply with the Government's guidelines he said." Now this is a direct quotation from him in this article. "In case any tourists sneak out of a quarantine facility they will be arrested." he said. So I think that is an important point to make. Now I don't think anybody who is looking to come to Thailand is trying to evade the rules but it is I think a good thing to make a video about because they are not messing around on this. They are very serious about maintaining these health and safety protocols associated with folks coming into Thailand. We have seen circumstances arise in the past where this issue has come up and it was dealt with rather swiftly. 

I think if you are looking to come to Thailand and if one is being admitted into Thailand and you don't wish to abide by the health and safety protocols it is probably good idea not to come because I could see it being a rather unfortunate, difficult, bad state of affairs you would find yourself in if you try to intentionally evade the quarantine protocols on coming into Thailand as a tourist and try to evade quarantine. Again it is specifically stated the Deputy Phuket Governor said and I am going to reiterate this again. This is a direct quote: "In case any tourists sneak out of a quarantine facility they will be arrested," and I can state that being detained in a penal facility here in Thailand or even Immigration detention is not a particularly fun place to be. 

So, if you are looking to come to Thailand and enjoy some tourism, enjoy everything that Thailand has to offer great, but please note at least for the foreseeable future of this COVID situation, we are being stuck with this quarantine requirement and those who come in will be required to quarantine and trying to illegally avoid doing so could lead to some really dire consequences.