Thailand will send 77 illegal Cambodian migrant workers home this morning after they were rounded up at a construction site in the southern peninsula of the country on Wednesday, border authorities said yesterday.

Sin Nam Yong, a border official in Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet town, said Thai police found the workers at a construction site in the Thai province of Chumphon.

“According to the report from the Thai authorities in Poipet, 77 are construction workers who were living at a construction site of an educational institution, but they didn’t have any legal documents,” she said.

Nam Yong said Thai authorities will take unspecified action against the construction firm that hired the Cambodians.

Poipet immigration chief Sim Samath said he did not know of this specific case, saying “hundreds” were deported from Thailand every day.

Most Cambodians working in Thailand are employed in low-wage industries such as construction and farming.

Most work illegally, said Minister of Labour Ith Samheng, at a conference in Phnom Penh on Wednesday. He added that Thailand was the largest host of both illegal and legal Cambodian workers.