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Thailand Visa News: Operation Outlaw Foreigner

Transcript of the above video:

In this video today as the title suggests, we're going to be providing a little bit of updated news with respect to Thailand visa and immigration matters. Recently I was reading through Stickboy Bangkok's website and that can be found at stickboybkk.com. The title of one of the articles on this site was “Operation Outlaw Foreigner: 75 Arrested During Countrywide Crackdown”. I have been trying to figure out if the actual name of this, for lack of a better term, “operation” was actually "Outlaw Foreigner". I have been trying to figure out if the various authorities that were responsible for undertaking some of these recent enforcement actions actually called the overarching protocol if you will "outlaw foreigner", I kind of found that name funny; I got a chuckle out of it. Quoting directly from Stickboy’s website, and I urge those who are watching this video again check out stickboybkk.com, the headline is “Operation Outlaw Foreigner: 75 Arrested During Countrywide Crackdown”. Quoting directly “Thai police continue their crusade against foreigners living and working illegally and those involved in crime on Tuesday night with 75 people were arrested during operation "Outlaw Foreigner". The highest-profile crackdown came in downtown Bangkok where officers from the tourist police were joined by colleagues from Thonglor police station together with members of the narcotics and immigration division. Other areas targeted included Samut Prakarn  and Pattaya”. The thing to take away from this article specifically is that as we have noted previously, the "good guys in bad guys out" protocol being utilized by the Thai immigration Authorities as well as the general policy of wanting to dissuade international criminals as well as just general overstayers in the Kingdom, is still being maintained and the enforcement functions are still being undertaken with the same zeal and vigour that they were previously undertaken with when we first reported such things. A further thing of note is it appears that various law enforcement officers have taken the position that the mere act of overstay signifies a level of cavalier, what is the right word for it, a sort of disregard for legal niceties that kind of leads to a presumption that that individual or the individual in question may be up to something nefarious, for lack of a better term. So whereas in the past, overstaying was viewed with a degree of nonchalance because it was viewed as a sort of a regulatory infraction, as at the time of this filming, more and more, I think it is primarily being viewed as a perhaps as a precursor to more illegal activity, at least by law enforcement authorities.  Whether that is a reasonable position, that's arguable; I can kind of see both sides of that argument but that being said that seems to be the presumption being taken. With respect to that same issue, quoting directly from the Bangkok Post, the article is entitled “75 Foreigners Detained for Illegal Stay, Working”. Earlier in the night, police arrested six foreigners for overstaying their visas and working without permission in a Pattaya resort beach. Oh, just sort of confirming again some of this stuff coming from Stickboy's website, is I really urge folks to take a look if they are interested in this topic because there is a number of photos and things on this site which provide a little bit more nuance into this matter but the thing to take away from this video I think is ”look  immigration enforcement is just getting tougher, it has gotten tougher and it doesn't look like that at any time soon we are going to be looking at a situation where it is going to be sort of scaled back”. I think we are going to continue to see raids similar to these because I think now the attitude is not so much that overstaying is a regulatory issue, now I think that the mindset has become, or the policy position has become, overstaying in and of itself is something that should be discouraged and for that reason, resources and time will be expended in an effort to catch those who are overstaying and deal with them accordingly.