COIMBATORE: As many as 26 Bangladeshi nationals were arrested by police on Thursday for staying illegally in Tirupur.

Acting on a tip, the Q branch sleuths, along with police from Palladam station, conducted a search at a textile firm run by a migrant couple at Kunnagalpalayam near Palladam on Wednesday night.

As the workers were about to return to their rooms after work, the police verified their documents and found them to be working in the textile unit by pretending to be migrant workers. They were all then taken to the Palladam police station.

Inquiries revealed that 20 of them were staying in Tirupur over the last five months, and six others for three long years.

They were in possession of fake documents, which they got through agents, who brought them to Tirupur and helped them find jobs.

The police are probing further to crack down on their entire network based on information gathered from the illegal immigrants. They were to be produced in court and lodged in Puzhal Central Prison in Chennai.