Picture courtesy of Daily News

In a recent crackdown by Thai immigration authorities, a foreign female teacher was apprehended in Samut Sakhon for illegally offering online Thai language lessons without the necessary teaching licence. This arrest comes as part of a broader initiative by the Immigration Bureau to enforce regulations against illegal employment and protect domestic job opportunities.

 

Colonel Pokchat Chaisukwattana, the head of Samut Sakhon's Immigration Office, led the investigation and subsequent arrest. He revealed that the teacher had been conducting online lessons through popular platforms such as Facebook and Zoom.

 

Her classes focused on basic Thai reading, writing, and conversational skills, drawing more than 100,000 followers online. These courses, which spanned over two months, were held every Friday and Saturday for two hours, with a tuition fee of 1,500 baht per participant.

 

The investigation into her activities revealed significant interest in her courses, as many expats and foreigners living in Thailand seek to learn the language for better integration and communication. However, her lack of a legitimate teaching licence made her operations unlawful under Thai regulations regarding foreign workers.

 

Colonel Pokchat emphasised that the arrest is a part of ongoing efforts to curb illegal employment and ensure that foreign nationals adhere to the legal frameworks governing their work in Thailand.

 

 

 

Authorities discovered that the teacher was officially permitted to stay in the country with a work visa exclusive to manual labour roles, strictly prohibiting her from teaching or engaging in other professional activities without proper authorisation.

 

Charges have been filed against her for "working without a licence" and "working outside authorised employment categories." The consequences are severe, including potential fines ranging from 5,000 to 50,000 baht and immediate deportation.

 

Additionally, the Immigration Bureau plans to revoke her rights to reside in the country.

 

Thai legislation, specifically the 2017 Management of Foreign Workers Act, clearly outlines that foreigners engaging in work without the correct permits face significant legal repercussions. Employers who hire unlicensed foreign workers are also subject to fines between 10,000 to 100,000 baht per worker.

 

Repeat offenders may face up to one year in prison, further fines between 50,000 to 200,000 baht, or both, alongside a three-year ban on hiring foreign workers.

 

This case underscores the importance for foreign nationals in Thailand to ensure their employment activities are fully compliant with local laws. It also highlights the ongoing measures by Thai authorities to protect local jobs while maintaining a regulated environment for foreign workers.

 

Picture courtesy of Daily News

 

Adapted by ASEAN Now from Daily News

 

 

-- 2025-04-21

 

 

Maybe a better THai teacher than ones in schools... 

3 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

Maybe a better THai teacher than ones in schools... 

Maybe.  I used to teach spoken and written Thai to several of my online students in Germany and France. I also taught written Thai as a volunteer teacher at the Burmese school on Koh Phangan a couple of years ago. 

 

I will carry the guilt of these criminal offences for the rest of my life 🙂

1 hour ago, simon43 said:

Maybe.  I used to teach spoken and written Thai to several of my online students in Germany and France. I also taught written Thai as a volunteer teacher at the Burmese school on Koh Phangan a couple of years ago. 

 

I will carry the guilt of these criminal offences for the rest of my life 🙂

 

I wonder what the statute of limitation is for those heinous crimes.

The only teachers I have found to help me add to my Thai skills all carry foreign passports.  I found the Thai courses given by Thais very regimented and focused on topics,  week by week , such as police one week , hospitals the next  I found basic communication skills , followed by 3 years of learning Nouns and the Verbs was helpful.

Schools didn't focus or were willing to help with the areas of the language I wanted to learn.

PS  books were useless ( before the internet days )

Now we have apps that are somewhat useful , but often incorrect.

I hope she only gets a slap on the hand and is told not to do it again. Yes, illegal, but a needed service.

very, very difficult to prove. She should ask 'em to go whistle. 

Sounds like a typical Thai upset that she was doing better than she could and made some noise. Sad. They should be given that lady a permanent job helping foreigners understand Thai. 

Once out of the country I hope she carries on giving those Thai language courses online. Internet has no barriers. 

These officers are heroes! It took four of them to arrest this dangerous young woman.

Great job officers! 

8 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Maybe a better THai teacher than ones in schools... 

Yes but she is not Thai if she was teaching English the Thai teachers would not have complained 

Instead of giving the successful course provider an opportunity to generate tax revenue and teach interested people Thai, they will likely imprison and deport her, despite her having a work permit. The stubborn adherence to outdated rules from grandma's era shows that time has stood still in Thailand. Outside Thailand, she will offer exactly the same courses and earn a lot of money, which she will then pay taxes on in a potentially more appreciative country.

I would prefer Thais to learn English, problem solved.

Pathetic ... especially the photo. Would they even understand how silly they look. 

9 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Maybe a better THai teacher than ones in schools... 

She obviously attracted customers in need of extra learning.

It would bring me greater satisfaction to witness four heroic officers apprehending a reckless Thai driver responsible for numerous injuries and fatalities, instead of seeing them involved with a harmless English teacher who fosters Thai students' self-assurance. Unfortunately, this scenario is never reflected in any news articles.🫤

Don't the police have much bigger and better fish to fry?  Education is such a heinous crime.

Poor girl, maybe if she tutored English to the Thais she would have been better off hmm..... Or Chinese... Thais do not like the idea that a foreigner can teach Thai language making more money than they dreamed of per class with such success. 

But she was not a teacher in reality. She was tutoring. Otherwise she would need to be working in a school. 

1 hour ago, thesetat said:

Poor girl, 

1500THBx100000 followers = 1.5 M weekly income

5 minutes ago, Alex2554 said:

1500THBx100000 followers = 1.5 M weekly income

Facebook followers not students

Seems like some jealous Thais dobbed her in. She could relocate almost anywhere in the world and have no problems teaching Thai online to anyone. Kudos to her for being so successful - if Thais were as smart as her they would copy and do same or better. Sour grapes for sure. Shame on the Thais for treating this lady this way when she's promoting the Thai language. 

 

Why oh why are they not pointing?

4 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Why oh why are they not pointing?

 

i believe under thai law a lack of pointing will always lead to a not guilty verdict.

 

Ha!
Thailand is the second country in Asia of girls working on webcam sites as Onlyfans etc. 

Thailand has a very strict laws on making obscene videos (a.k.a. porn) and engaging into such activity. 

But ... 

hundreds of newcomers are joining DA BIZ weekly and almost nothing happens. 

Why? 

It is very tiresome work to investigate, prove and submit it to the court. 

It Is online, honey! something in the cloud somewhere in the cloud. 

Then how could they arrest a young woman doing something "in the cloud" with "virtual customers"? 

Unless they will scare her <deleted>less and confess >>>>> no evidence whatsoever. 

She was just recording videos for her Hollywood career. Ooops! somebody were watching? Wow!

What is her channel name?