MANILA - Malaysian lawyer Gordon Jones has been engaged by the Philippine government to pursue the sexual abuse complaint of a 13 year-old girl against a policeman at a Sabah detention centre for illegal migrants, an official statement said today.

Jones is to represent the girl in the protest lodged by Manila, the foreign department statement said.

The girl who was allegedly sexually abused was among 500 Filipinos who were deported to the southern Philippines last week, according to social workers who said she needed immediate psychological help.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad last week pledged swift action after Philippine President Gloria Arroyo (photo) complained in a letter to him that the migrant girl had been sexually abused, reportedly by a policeman at a detention centre in Sabah.

The case is the latest cause of friction over Malaysia's crackdown on illegal immigrants, which has seen more than 380,000 people fleeing the country or being deported ahead of tough new punishments including jail and caning.

The clampdown on illegal workers, has sparked protests in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Legal evidence

Philippines Foreign Secretary Blas Ople also ordered undersecretary Arturo Brion "to see to the proper packaging of the legal evidence concerning Philippine allegations of maltreatment of the Filipino deportees in Sabah," the statement said.

On Monday, Ople also presented to the Philippines cabinet "a plan for the accelerated documentation of Filipino illegal migrants still hiding from the authorities in Sabah," it added. AFP