A total of 120 out of 232 Acehnese asylum seekers detained by the authorities have agreed to go home, a senior immigration official said today.

Ishak Mohamed, immigration director in Perak, said investigations showed that the 120 migrants were not involved with the Indonesian rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM) group.

Their relatives living in Malaysia have agreed to pay for their travel home, he said.

"They will be sent back (to Aceh) once all the travel documents are ready," he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

The 232 Acehnese, including women and children, were detained Tuesday as they tried to seek asylum outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Kuala Lumpur.

They are currently held in the Langkap detention centre in Perak, which is opposite Aceh across the narrow Malacca Strait.

Unprecedented action

Ishak said the remaining 112 migrants were still being investigated.

"We hope to finish (investigations) within the next few days. Several officers from Perak immigration headquarters are in Langkap to handle this," he added.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday said the government was reviewing plans to deport the migrants from war-torn Aceh and may grant them temporary stay.

This followed criticism from the UNHCR, which has expressed alarm at Malaysia's "unprecedented action" in arresting asylum seekers.

It urged the government to free the detainees and issue them temporary protection letters, saying refugees were not illegal immigrants under international law. - AFP