The government has announced plans to prosecute and punish all illegal immigrants before they are deported as part of efforts to rid the country of more than a million illegal workers.

At present illegal immigrants rounded up in special operations are deported without punishment.

Others arrested randomly and those who harbour or employ them face fines of up to RM10,000 per offence, a jail sentence of up to five years, or both, with whipping.

"We feel that prosecuting only those arrested at random while sparing those arrested during special operations is unfair as both groups should be treated the same," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper today.

Malaysia introduced new, tougher immigration laws in August 2002, preceeded by a crackdown on illegal immigrants which saw nearly half a million people repatriated during a four-month amnesty period.

However, this caused a severe labour shortage in the construction and plantation sectors and the government later had to fast-track approvals for recruiting foreign workers for certain industries.

Employers not punished

Last month Home Minister Azmi Khalid said there were an estimated 1.2 million illegal workers in the country and some 400,000 members of the People's Volunteer Corps would be deployed to help round them up.

Most of the foreign workers are from neighbouring Indonesia and the Philippines, drawn to relatively prosperous Malaysia by jobs in construction, plantation work and services.

Najib, who is the chairman of the cabinet committee on foreign workers, said that while a high number of illegal foreign workers had been prosecuted under the new immigration laws, not a single employer who has been prosecuted had been punished.

"We hope the courts will take cognisance of this fact and try to expedite the cases because this involves national interests," he said.