DoE raid: Unlicensed foreign teachers schooled in surprise sweep
Department of Employment (DoE) officials swooped into Bangkok’s Ratchada and Bang Na areas to check on foreign teachers without any certification in a surprise operation. Hot on the heels of last week’s shock arrest of eight South Korean nationals teaching without valid work documentation, officials are leaving no stone unturned to rectify the situation.
“Search, Arrest, Fine, Deport” is the mantra officials are chanting, as they desperately try to protect jobs for Thai citizens by catching foreign offenders red-handed. Reports had flooded in about these rogue educators, leading to raids on some of the city’s most prominent Korean language schools.
The DoE’s inquisitive inspectors, in a dramatic collaboration with Immigration Bureau police, made unannounced visits on Sunday to audit teaching visas. But, in an anticlimactic twist, not a single illegal instructor was sniffed out. However, doors remain open for future operations.
The DoE chief, Somchai Morakotsriwan, insists that the crackdown is crucial for safeguarding the nation’s workforce. He points out that foreign educators at Thai schools must jump through the hoop of obtaining non-immigrant visas, and their applications must spew out qualifications and paperwork worthy of James Bond.
The penalties are no pittance either, those hustlers caught with their work permit trousers down could face fines from a modest 5,000 baht to a wallet-busting 50,000 baht, not to mention a potential deportation ticket, Bangkok Post reported.
Schools running this risky business are looking at flogging fines between 10,000 and 100,000 baht per person. And if they become repeat offenders, the threat of a year behind bars with penalties skyrocketing to 200,000 baht per head looms large.
Got questions about work permits? Somchai urges the paperwork perplexed to dial up the Labour Ministry’s 1506 hotline or the DoE’s 1694, where English speakers are ready to help smooth the bumpy road to legality.
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