Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing new measures being implemented by Thai Immigration with regard to the apprehension of folks who are overstaying their visa in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that's thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: More than 1,000 foreigners in Phuket caught for Visa overstay. Quoting directly: "Phuket officials said the achievement comes as the result of crime-free measures implemented by businesses, enabling them to promptly inform the Police about any suspicious activities involving foreign guests, the news agency reported. Phuket Immigration Chief Pol Col Thanet Sukchai said the number of foreign guests registered at accommodations in Phuket over the past 2 months exceeded the number of foreign tourists who arrived in the same period by over 20%."  What is interesting here, this is me talking, is the fact that now due to the digitization of data, and I don't even know, maybe some AI technology, not sure on that, but at least the digitization of data, they are now able to see any discrepancies between people who have arrived, people who have departed and people who are remaining in the Kingdom. So in the past when it was all sort of analog or paper, it was very difficult to the point of probably nearly impossible for Immigration Authorities to be able to say "hey we had X number of people enter in the past X time frame, we had X number leave, there's a discrepancy. Clearly there are some people in Thailand who are overstaying,” and then they can go even further and figure out who because the digitization of this. And I am sure biometrics for example plays big into how all this works. Quoting further: "The significant discrepancy prompted an investigation leading to the identification and capture of numerous Visa overstayers he said." Quoting further: "The implementation of a new database played a crucial role in the success of this initiative allowing the Police to track down a missing foreigner recently, Col Thanet explained." Again, as I have stated in other videos and going back years now and I kind of get I don't know if I would say burned but kind of razzed if you will in the comments section sometimes because people say "oh you are just sort of fear-mongering about Immigration's abilities and their enforcement functions," - I am not. At the end of the day, the technology has been improving, Thai Immigration has been implementing this technology and as they have been implementing it, enforcement measures associated with Immigration Law have improved and I don't see any reason to believe that that's not going to continue into the foreseeable future. 

So what is the takeaway from this video? The takeaway is this. If you are coming to Thailand, you need to assiduously not only come into Thailand on proper status, but assiduously maintain one's status while here through for example Thai Visa Extension or leave the country before going into overstay because Immigration has the tools now to ascertain who is in the Kingdom legally and who is not and they are enforcing and using their enforcement functions to go ahead and find those folks and go ahead and deport them presumably also Blacklist them. So again the thing to take away from this video, maintenance of your Thai Visa status is important and it's a good idea to be very, very careful in maintaining that status for fear of ending up in a deportation situation and a possible situation where one is blacklisted for a prolonged period of time and thereby unable to re-enter the Kingdom of Thailand.