Chinese nabbed for running eatery

Men to be deported to home country

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

Immigration police raided a Chinese restaurant with the Thai name Chaoshan Ocha and Englishscript name Chao Wei on Rama IX Road in the Bang Kapi area of Huai Khwang yesterday.

Police said they found the 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 examining revenue and expense accounts while the two others — Chin, 38 and Chen, 31 — were cooking in the kitchen.

All three were unable to show their passports but did show copies to the officers.

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

The arrests came after Pol Col Rapheepat Uttasaha, investigation chief at Immigration Division 1, 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 a fine of up to 1 million baht.

The reminder follows a complaint by a food vendor along the road that Chinese nationals on tourist visas were using Thai nominees to run businesses in the area known as Bangkok’s Chinatown.

Meanwhile, Employment Department Director-General Pairoj Chotikasathien said foreigners could not operate businesses or hire Thais as workers in the kingdom unless they have legally secured business licences in accordance with the Foreign Business Act 1999.

Mr Pairoj said migrant workers could work for an employer and are allowed to enter the kingdom as per requirements under the Immigration Act.

In this fiscal year, the department has inspected 10,174 workplaces, 360 of which have been prosecuted for breaching such laws.