''We live in fear. I have decided not to return,'' says Fandi Ahmad, a father of two, who worked on a palm oil plantation in Sandakan, Sabah state in eastern Malaysia, and who now finds himself back on Indonesian soil.

Thousands of workers like Fandi are returning home as part of a mass exodus of workers being forced out of Malaysia under tough new immigration laws that came into effect on Aug 1.

Migrant workers caught without permits, and those who harbour them, face between six months and five years in jail, a maximum fine of RM10,000 and up to six strokes of the rattan.

Like the rest of Southeast Asia, the Malaysian economy is in a post-Sept 11 slump, although it has been pulling back much of its welcome mat for foreign migrant workers since after the 1997 economic crisis.

Under this situation, critics say it is easy to crack down on the most vulnerable and those least likely to bite back — illegal migrant workers.

Up to 300,000 foreign workers, mainly Indonesians, are thought to have left Malaysia since a four-month amnesty programme was declared in March, and a similar number are thought to remain.

But while most illegal workers are Indonesians (244,000) there are also sizable numbers of Indians (19,000), Bangladeshis (17,000), Filipinos and Burmese.

Malaysia has some 750,000 legal foreign workers.

Two-week grace period

A two-week grace period has given thousands of undocumented and worried workers until Aug 15 to collect their belongings and head to the nearest checkpoint.

Indonesian officials want Malaysia to allow an estimated 300,000 of its nationals still in that country to be allowed to stay while they fix their papers, but Malaysia — whose Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad met Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri Thursday in Bali — has so far refused to budge.

The crackdown is Malaysia's most serious attempt to date to act on illegal workers, and involves a concerted effort by the Malaysian police and military to seek out and deport migrants that fail to produce the necessary paperwork.

On the first day of a drive targeting 30,000 migrants in Sabah state on Borneo Island, the authorities arrested more than 2,500 people and demolished 227 squatter homes, a police spokesman in Sabah said.

Those arrested in a similar operation on Tuesday, mostly Filipinos and Indonesians, were being held in detention camps and would be deported as soon as possible.

''I feel like I am watching Israelis soldiers search and harass Palestinian settlements in Gaza or something,'' said Hajarullah Aswad, a social worker overseeing the deportation of Indonesian illegal workers in Riau islet in western Sumatra in the country's north-west.

Law and order issue

In times of crisis, governments look for easy scapegoats, so it is no surprise then that the expulsions are being framed by the Malaysian authorities as a law and order issue, with foreign workers being blamed for the nation's growing crime and other problems.

On the other side of the border, the Indonesian government sees things quite differently.

''I think to a certain extent, they (Malaysian government) should thank the illegal workers. They have a hand in developing Malaysian businesses. Malaysian businessmen also take advantage of this situation because they don't have to pay tax,'' Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Cooperatives and Welfare Yusuf Kalla said.

''So it is good if they act a bit more fairly in this case,'' he added.

The truth is, however, that the troubled Indonesian economy would be hard put providing jobs for hundreds of thousands of returning workers — some 30 million people lack full-time work and another 7.8 million have no jobs in this country of 220 million people.

During the boom years of the 1990s, low-wage labourers from abroad helped Malaysia achieve remarkable rates of economic growth, but migrant labourers are now being looked down upon — and it is creating bitterness between the two Southeast Asian neighbours.

''If Malaysia does not cooperate, we can send more illegal workers, or we will take them all out of the country, both legal and illegal ones,'' Labour Minister Jacob Nuwa Wea, said after a cabinet meeting earlier this week, boasting that Malaysian firms would suffer if Indonesian workers were pulled out.

Industries hit hardest

It is a sentiment shared by many Malaysian bosses.

Given their dependence on illegal workers, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers says the expulsion of illegal workers will hit the plantation and construction industry hardest.

Mostin bin Marzuki, a palm oil plantation owner in Tawao in Malaysia's Sarawak state, says his plantation is now unattended because only a few people work for him. ''Until three months ago, we employed about one thousand workers, all of them are from Indonesia,'' he said in interview that went to air on local television.

''I am afraid this business would collapse so soon,'' he said.

The Malaysian Employers' Federation admits that around half of the construction industry's labour force is made up of illegal workers. Building firms are also frightened that a failure to meet contractual obligations, due to a diminished labour force, could spell financial disaster for them in the courts.

Class action lawsuit

Here at home, Indonesian activists are worried that its government is not doing enough to safeguard the interests of its citizens.

A consortium representing labour activists and non-governmental organisations on Wednesday said it planned to file a class action lawsuit against its government for failing to protect the rights of nationals working abroad.

The Consortium for Indonesian Migrant Workers' Defense (Kopbumi) said it would set up 'Information and Complaints Posts' along border points to record complaints by deported Indonesian migrant workers.

Kopbumi called on the Jakarta government to assess the losses suffered by returning migrant workers and compensate them if this was due to its own negligence.

"However, if the losses were caused by the Malaysian government, the Indonesian government should demand for compensation through international law mechanisms," Kopbumi said. — IPS