Twenty-four illegal migrant workers were arrested after a raid on a data center construction site in the Ban Chang District of Rayong, Thailand.

The Chinese-run data center construction site was raided at about 10 am on Tuesday this week by police officials from the Provincial Employment Office, as reported by the Bangkok Post.

Those arrested comprised 20 Myanmar nationals and four Chinese nationals. Officials found the workers were without proper permits and were working illegally upon checking their work and immigration documents. A number of other workers fled at the arrival of the authorities, jumping into a nearby canal and swimming away.

Legal proceedings have begun, with immigration police contacted to carry out deportation procedures. Complaints have also been filed by local authorities against three unnamed contractors for their employment of the illegal workers.

An initial inspection of the site found more than 400 people allegedly working on the under-construction data center project who were living at a camp set up for construction workers.

Construction of the data center has been taking place for several months, according to local media, and there have been concerns about potential impacts of the project on the local community. Authorities found nothing of concern in initial checks, particularly around alleged encroachment on a nearby canal. However, an official land survey is set to be conducted to confirm this.

The data center site was previously a golf course situated on a plot of more than 160,000 sqm (1.72 million sq ft) in Village 6 (MOO 6) in Tambon Ban Chang in Rayong’s Ban Chang District. When questioned by officials, the previous owner said he played no part in hiring the illegal workers, having had no involvement after selling the site.

The project owners are yet to be identified, according to Bangkok Post. However, the data center site might be that of Galaxy DC (GDC), owned by Chinese tech company Hoyinn Technologies.

In August 2025, the data center company announced plans to invest $2bn in data centers in Thailand, including a computing cluster in Rayong. Silicon Tech Park in the Ban Chang District was named as a data center site, which is adjacent to the Emerald Golf Club course and very near MOO 6, and looks to be a similar location to the aforementioned data center construction site raided on Tuesday this week.

DCD has approached GDC for confirmation and comment.