The government was on the defensive Tuesday as its crackdown on illegal immigrants provoked anger in Indonesia, suffering in the Philippines and economic problems at home.

Officials scrambled to control the damage after Indonesian protestors burnt the Malaysian flag and reports from the Philippines said at least eight babies had died while awaiting deportation or during their perilous sea-journey home.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar accused some Indonesian politicians and the media of fuelling anti-Malaysian sentiment and warned citizens to avoid visiting the neighbouring country "until the situation cools down".

More than 300,000 people, mostly Indonesians and Filipinos, fled Malaysia ahead of the introduction on Aug 1 of harsh new punishments for illegal immigrants, including a mandatory six months in jail and up to six strokes of the cane.

Almost every day since then courts have sentenced groups of those who remained behind to be whipped, outraging Indonesia's national assembly chairman Amien Rais, who called the punishment "inhumane" and "insulting".

Severing ties

On Monday, an Indonesian group protesting the whippings toppled the main gate of the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta and set fire to a Malaysian flag, calling for Jakarta to sever diplomatic relations with Kuala Lumpur.

The Philippines, meanwhile, is grappling with the continuing influx of tens of thousands of its citizens heading home from Sabah, where many of an estimated half-million Filippinos have lived for years.

President Gloria Arroyo has asked Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for help in regulating the massive repatriation, and the government has given the Philippines clearance to use naval ships to ferry home illegal workers.

Officials say more than 60,000 "boat people' have returned from Sabah, and on Monday another 1,525 Filipinos, many of them sickly women and children, arrived on a Philippine navy ship in Tawi-Tawi in the south of the country.

"Some of them are sick and most of the children and women are suffering from respiratory tract infection," said Commodore Ernesto de Leon, naval forces chief in the south.

"We pity them and if others could only see their plight, you would feel your chest tightening realizing what they have been through."

Malaysian ambassador to Manila Taufik Mohamed Noor said Kuala Lumpur was coordinating closely with Philippine consulate teams in Sabah to ensure "orderly departure" and "prevent any possibility of the illegals being abused or ill-treated.

"If they are sick, Filipino consular officials should tell Malaysian officials not to put them on the boat," he said.

Social implications

Celso Lobregat, an opposition congressman in Zamboanga, said the influx could have tremendous social implications such as unemployment, a housing shortage and health problems in the country's south, already troubled by kidnappings and decades of Muslim revolts.

In Malaysia itself, the government has been forced to reverse a ban on the employment of Indonesians in the construction sector and has agreed to a new recruitment drive.

The move came after property developers warned construction sites were grinding to a halt and project delays would cost millions of dollars and possibly push house prices up by as much as 10 percent.

The crackdown on illegals exacerbated labour problems caused by a government ban on even the legal recruitment of Indonesians for the construction industry, which was imposed in February after two riots by migrant workers. AFP