Sixty-six Chinese nationals from 16 families have been detained for overstaying their visas following a police raid on a resort in Bang Lamung district, Chon Buri, on Friday.

A team of police, immigration officers and local officials visited the Long Lake Hillside Resort after learning that many Chinese nationals were staying there.

The officers found 32 adults, 31 youths aged below 15 and three children from 16 families. They were holding Chinese passports and some had expired cards from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

It was not known how they had obtained the cards and they were not claiming refugee status, a source said. Some of the children had birth certificates purportedly issued by a hospital in Bangkok.

Most of those held had overstayed in the country for less than one year and some had overstayed for only a month. All of them were taken to the police station before deportation.

Deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn earlier met with immigration and tourist police in Pattaya to ask them to crack down on illegal migrant workers and foreign nationals who have been staying in the country illegally.

The request follows months of revelations that hundreds of wealthy Chinese businesspeople have managed to obtain visas through foundations or educational organisations, many of them set up with the help of corrupt immigration police.