Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Immigration Policy falling in line with that of the National Police Chief. As we have discussed in other videos, Thai Immigration has become much more of a priority in a very real sense to the Royal Thai Police and as we discussed, there was actually a if you want to call it, sort of an order given by Royal Thai Police to the Immigration Bureau that they needed to continue keeping Royal Thai Police apprised of ongoing cases that were pending within Immigration because those cases were viewed as a priority. 

For those who are unaware, going back about the last 6 months we have had these multiple incidences of so-called "foreigners behaving badly" and a couple of them really rankled the Thai public if you will: the so-called "beach bully" case as well as the case involving basically the accosting of a Police Sergeant, traffic Sergeant situation by some foreigners. This caused a great deal of consternation among Thai public opinion and there were calls for the Police to do something about it. So in the aftermath of that, they made some policy changes. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Training Day for Phuket Immigration volunteers. And the relevant sub section here, quoting directly: "One such example is utilizing the capabilities of outsiders such as volunteers who may have specific knowledge and skills in foreign languages to participate in supporting the work of the Phuket Immigration Police Officers. Quoting further: "The directive is aligned with the policy of the National Police Chief on the development of police stations to ensure readiness and serve as a valuable resource for the public. It is similarly aligned to the policy of the Immigration Bureau Commander on Immigration services, said Pol.Col. Kriangkrai."

So what to take away from this? Again, I think we are seeing this streamlining of relations between the Royal Thai Police and the Immigration Bureau which in the past there were certain disconnects and it caused, oftentimes it would cause criminals to fall through the cracks or it would cause folks who really probably should have been deported, to not be deported because they didn't have so much harmonization between these two offices. Well now we have a lot of harmonization. As we have discussed in other videos, they have also digitized the Immigration System so they are able to very quickly cross-reference various documents. I expect this is also true with regard to ongoing criminal proceedings which may be occurring in the Courts that may be part of Royal Thai Police proper's job and again this is all sort of being amalgamated if you will into one system in which they will then try to go ahead and better enforce Immigration Law. 

What to take away from this video? Well the thing to take away from this video is more and more, Immigration matters are being viewed as law enforcement priorities rather than administrative priorities here in the Kingdom of Thailand.