TASEK GELUGOR: Five Thai nationals who were working at a Thai restaurant in Jalan Hashim Awang ran helter-skelter with ladles still in their hands to escape arrest in an integrated operation conducted by the Immigration Department yesterday.
However, the law managed to catch up with them and they were arrested in the 10 pm raid.
Penang Immigration director Muhamad Husni Mahmud said the Thai nationals, all men aged between 25 and 34, had valid travel documents, but had overstayed and were without a valid work permit.
Checks found that the restaurant is run by one of them and the case will also be forwarded to the local government authority to identify the owner of the restaurant premises, he told reporters here today.
He said 31 other foreign nationals, aged between 20 and 50, were also arrested in the raid which targeted Siamese shops and restaurants in Bukit Mertajam and Butterworth and flat units in George Town.
They comprised 13 Thai nationals, including six women, Indonesian (two men), Bangladeshi (10 men), Nepalese (five men) and a male Indian national.
All of them were sent to the Penang Immigration office for documentation and then to the Immigration depot in Juru for further action, he added. — Bernama
