Malaysia will press ahead with a controversial plan to arrest and deport hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants in January despite a warning by an international rights group that it could lead to widespread abuses, Home Minister Azmi Khalid said today.

Azmi told AFP there would be no change in plans to deploy more than half a million Malaysian members of volunteer neighbourhood security groups to track down and detain the illegal migrants.

The move was described as "ominous" by Human Rights Watch, which said in a statement last week the volunteers would receive minimal training and would get cash rewards for each migrant arrested.

Azmi defended the plan, saying those heading the civilian groups were skilled and experienced as they were former military and police officials.

"Have no fear," Azmi said. "We are a civilised society. We do not beat the illegals."

There are an estimated 1.2 million illegal immigrants in Malaysia, mainly from neighbouring Indonesia and the Philippines but also from India and Bangladesh, who are drawn by jobs in construction, plantation work and services.

Malaysia has said it will move against the illegal migrants at the end of an amnesty which began on Oct 29. The amnesty was originally designed to last 17 days, but has been extended until an unspecified date next month at the request of the Indonesian government.

Azmi said only about 111,000 illegal migrants had left the country since the amnesty began and he did not foresee a major exodus before it expired despite tough punishment including jail terms and a whipping for those who overstay.

Unemployment and poverty

Many illegal immigrants risk staying in relatively-prosperous Malaysia because they face unemployment and poverty in their own countries. "Life back home is difficult," an Indonesian car-wash worker told AFP . "They cannot find a job and they have paid a lot of money to come here."

Their chances of escaping the latest crackdown are small, however, as Azmi has already instructed two volunteer security organisations with a total of 560,000 members to begin gathering information on illegal immigrants in their respective areas.

The Indonesian government has begun setting up shelters and support services for returning migrants, but it remains unclear whether these arrangements will be sufficient to handle hundreds of thousands of returnees and to avoid the deaths and other abuses that occurred during a similar expulsion in mid-2002, Human Rights Watch said.

Azmi and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak will visit Indonesia early next month for talks on the issue.