Malaysian security forces have arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants, mainly Indonesians, in a series of operations launched in the past three days to nab defiant migrants, officials said Sunday.

Local residents said there were still large number of illegals who have not left the country despite the possibility of being jailed and whipped under tough new laws.

"They are willing to take the risk. They think the government will slow down on the operation to rid the country of illegals," Mat Rozi, 32, who lives just south of the capital Kuala Lumpur in a neighbourhood comprising Indonesian immigrants.

"They say life in Indonesia is tough due to lack of jobs," he told AFP .

But security officials warned that there would not be any let up in their operations.

"We will not compromise. We know there are those who do not want to leave. We will carry out our operations everyday," a senior officer involved in the operation told AFP on condition of anonymnity.

The officer said a concern that illegal migrants contribute to rising crime, and about a large flow of funds as immigrants send there earnings home are behind the government's resolve.

"There were so many of them. Some commit crimes and since they are not documented, it is difficult for police to trace and arrest them," he said.

Millions repatraited annually

Officials say millions of dollars are repatraited annually by the foreign workers. But others say the contribution of the illegals to the economy far outweighs the outflow of funds.

The New Straits Times Saturday said 600 illegals had been arrested since August 1.

The new immigration laws came into effect Thursday but its enforcement has been delayed.

Under the new laws, both illegal immigrants and their employers face a mandatory six months in jail and possibly up to six strokes of the cane.

Zainal Rampak, president of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress, the country's largest labour group told AFP that enforcement agencies should beef up operations to nab the illegals who may resort to a cat-and-mouse game.

"Operations must continue to flush out the illegals," he said.

Change mindset

Zainal urged employers to pay appropriate salaries to attract local workers and not to cry over the tough action taken by the government.

"They must change their mindset of paying low salaries. Locals will work if the salary is right and labour rights are adhered to," he said.

Employers had warned the hasty move could paralyse the country's export-driven economy amid severe shortages in the construction and plantation sectors.

The Malaysian Employers Federation executive director, Shamsuddin Bardan, said some 80 percent of construction workers were foreigners, of whom 70 percent were illegals mainly from Indonesia.

Immigration officials said Sunday some 322,180 illegal immigrants had left the country under the four-month amnesty which began March 22.

The government had announced that illegal immigrants who could prove they were willing to leave the country would be granted a one-month grace period before being arrested.

Malaysia, which is home to some 750,000 legal foreign workers apart from the hundreds of thousands of illegals, has long sought to cut reliance on foreign labour.

Indonesians topped the list of those who have returned home under the amnesty with 273,244 people, followed by 20,105 Indians and 17,637 Bangladeshis. AFP