A massive crackdown on illegal immigrants in Sabah entered its third day today, with more arrests and more squatter colonies demolished.

Police have screened 6,102 immigrants since the operation began Tuesday and 1,245 found to be illegals have been detained, said senior police officer Mohamad Reduan Abdullah.

The illegal immigrants, most of whom were Filipinos and the rest Indonesians, have been detained and would be handed over to immigration for deportation, Mohamad Reduan said.

"This crackdown will be a continuing process until we achieve our target of zero illegal immigrants," he told AFP from the state capital Kota Kinabalu.

Some 4,000 personnel from police, immigration and other government agencies are involved in the drive to rid Sabah - which is near to the southern Philippines - of an estimated 600,000 illegal immigrants.

Officials said the crackdown was also aimed at weeding out armed militant groups, especially from the Philippines, which were trying to set up bases in the state's squatter colonies.

Sabah police commissioner Ramli Yusuff told Bernama news agency that 803 houses in illegal settlements on coastal and riverine areas have been demolished so far.

Locals need not fear

The operation in 13 districts had been successful but there was a complaint that police had demolished squatter houses belonging to local people, he said.

"This is not true... we only demolish houses occupied by illegal immigrants... local people have no reason to fear....just show your identification documents," Ramli added.

Thursday's The Star said many immigrants were seen fleeing from known immigrant havens in several districts amid the crackdown.

Tragedy struck a Filipino family when a 19-month-old baby girl fell from her stilt squatter house and drowned.

Security officials were quoted as saying the girl's death was an accident and not due to the operation.

The action in Sabah is in line with a tougher approach throughout Malaysia, which is home to 750,000 legal foreign workers and hundreds of thousands of mainly-Indonesian illegal immigrants.

The government, which has said it aims to deport about 10,000 Indonesian illegal immigrants every month, in January launched an offensive against the migrants, with almost daily arrests.

Recent riots

Malaysia's increasing intolerance of illegal immigrants was also turned against legal workers from Indonesia after two riots in January by textile and construction workers.

The government announced that Indonesians would be hired in future only as domestic helpers and plantation workers.

Indonesian government ministers apologised for the riots and asked Malaysia to reconsider its decision, but to no avail.