The government has arrested 563 illegal immigrants, including 30 Europeans and two Americans, in the first two days of a nationwide blitz which will intensify in the coming weeks, said Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid.

Azmi, however, pledged to spare asylum seekers protected by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from the operation following expressions of concern from the agency.

The controversial operation to deport hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, some of whom will be whipped as punishment, began on Tuesday after the end of a four-month amnesty which had been extended twice at Jakarta's request.

Among those detained were 370 Indonesians, 108 Filipinos, 18 from Burma, 16 Thais, eight Bangladeshis, four Nepalese, three Pakistanis, and two each from India and Vietnam, Azmi told a news conference yesterday.

Twenty-three French nationals, five Britons, two Americans, a Croatian and one Italian, all believed to be professionals, were also picked up for breaching their visitors' visa.

"These people came on visitors visa but they work. We will decide what to do with them," he said.

Of the total arrested, 253 were rounded up in Sabah. Two employers have also been arrested in Johor for harbouring illegals, he said.

Although some 400,000 mostly Indonesian immigrants took advantage of the amnesty to leave without penalty, Azmi said an estimated 400,000 remained in the country, many of them believed to be in Sabah.

UNHCR protection

The blitz, codenamed "Ops Tegas," got off to a slow start Tuesday with only some 500 civilian volunteers and immigration officials involved he said it would build up to a full force of more than 600,000 people.

The crackdown "will go on forever as long as we have illegals," he said.

Azmi stressed asylum seekers who have been in the country for some time would not be targeted but would be given temporary permits to work.

"Those who are protected under the UNHCR, we will not touch them. Even without papers, if we know where they are from, we will not touch them," he said.

"For those who are here that cannot go back due to political pressure in their homeland, we cannot allow them to be beggars... we want them to be working under umbrellas that we will create for them so they can get jobs and the women can be trained to be domestic maids."

Azmi responded to UNHCR concerns over the arrest of 27 Indonesians from tsunami-hit Aceh province by saying they must first show proof of their citizenship.

"Acehnese will have to prove they are Acehnese. We have our ways of checking. If he is Acehnese, we will be symphathetic and we will not send him back," he said.

Human approach

Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as a number of rights groups, have expressed concerns about the massive crackdown which they say is open to abuse.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission in a statement urged Malaysia to go beyond rhetoric in supporting tsunami-hit nations like Indonesia and take a more "human approach" towards the migrants.

It cited the conditions of detention camps, legal representation and prescribed punishments including whipping for the migrants as human rights concerns.

But Azmi said officials have been trained to exercise caution and everything was "done in order" without violence, while the detention camps were sufficient to house the immigrants.

"We have our laws," he said. "We have been prepared for all this, we have done it before, we have seen problems and learnt how to cope with it, this is not something new to us."

The crackdown is part of Malaysia's largest blitz to flush out illegal immigrants in three years. A similar nationwide sweep was carried out in 2002 after a four-month amnesty.