(AFP) The police today said they were stepping up efforts to deport illegal Indonesian immigrants after the government cut recruitment of workers from the neighbouring country.

"We are working harder now to send them back, we will continue arresting more," a police spokesman told AFP .

Local media reported Wednesday that six illegal Indonesian immigrants drowned after jumping into a river while trying to escape police, and that hundreds of squatter homes had been demolished.

The six men, aged between 20 and 35, died after a pre-dawn raid on a construction site outside the port city of Klang near Kuala Lumpur on Friday, the New Straits Times said.

On Monday, more than 200 squatter homes, mostly housing Indonesians, were demolished at two camps in the Klang Valley, the Malay Mail reported.

The government announced its new policy of reducing the number of Indonesians working in Malaysia after two riots by textile and construction workers in January.

It said Indonesians, who now make up 566,983 out of a total of 769,566 legal foreign workers in the country, would be hired in future only as maids and plantation workers.

Zero illegal entry

The police spokesman told AFP that 4,531 illegal Indonesian workers had been arrested in January and most had already been deported.

A total 61,768 Indonesians were arrested last year, almost 70 percent of the total number of illegal immigrants detained, the spokesman said.

The government says there are some 450,000 illegal immigrants from Indonesia and it aims to deport about 10,000 every month.

It announced earlier this month it would tighten coastal security in the narrow Straits of Malacca and along Penang coast line as it aims for zero illegal entry this year.