The Lankans – 18 men, six women and a toddler – were spotted by patrol police at about 11.30am, walking along the road in front of Wat Dai, and were arrested.
They told police at Chalong Police Station that they were originally refugees, made homeless in the Sri Lanka civil war, and had been helped by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to relocate to Malaysia in 2006.
Carrying only UNHCR ID cards, they were having trouble getting work in Malaysia. An agent offered to bring them into Thailand where, they were told, they could get jobs in Phuket.
The agent charged each of the men B5,000 (the women B3,000) to smuggle them across the border from Keddah, after which they made their way to Phuket by bus.
All 25 were locked up in Chalong pending a court appearance, which is expected to be followed by deportation to Malaysia.