Three Chinese who entered the country as tourists have been arrested for illegally operating a restaurant in Bangkok’s Huai Khwang district.

Immigration police inspected the Chinese restaurant Chao Wei on Rama IX Road in the Bang Kapi area of Huai Khwang early on Tuesday. They found three Chinese men were illegally operating the restaurant and had hired compatriots and other illegal migrants to work there.

When police arrived, one of the three Chinese men, identified only as Yang, was preparing accounts and the two others - Chin, 38 and Chen, 31 – were cooking in the kitchen. 

The immigration database showed the three men had entered the country as tourists. They were detained on charges of working without work permits, put on an immigration blacklist and will be deported.

The arrests came after police received information that Chinese tourists had illegally opened a Chinese restaurant in a Bangkok downtown area.

Earlier, the Department of Business Development warned that Thai citizens who were acting as nominees for Chinese-owned businesses along Yaowarat Road were liable to up to three years in prison and/or fine up to one million baht.