Penalties for illegal work — for the worker and for the employer

The penalties were rewritten by the Emergency Decree (No. 2) B.E. 2561 (2018), and much of what circulates online is the harsher pre-2018 law. Under the current section 101, a foreigner who works without a permit or outside the work he or she has the right to do faces a fine of 5,000 to 50,000 baht — no imprisonment — and after paying is to be repatriated expeditiously. A foreigner accused of the offence who agrees to leave the Kingdom can settle by fine, closing the case. The lasting sting is section 64/1: a person punished under section 101 cannot get a new work permit until two years after the punishment ends. Victims and witnesses in human-trafficking cases are exempt.

Employers are hit harder. Under section 102, taking a foreigner into work without a permit — or into work outside what they are allowed to do — costs 10,000 to 100,000 baht per foreigner employed. A repeat offence brings imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of 50,000 to 200,000 baht per foreigner, or both, plus a three-year ban on employing any foreigner from the date of final judgment. Note the per-head multiplier: three undocumented workers means three fines. Separate duties carry their own fines, such as the employer's obligation to notify the registrar of a foreign hire or resignation within 15 days (section 13; up to 20,000 baht under section 103).