Thousands of Indonesian illegal immigrants were shipping out of Malaysia ahead of a nationwide crackdown starting tomorrow, while others fled their homes as their employers were warned that even the bosses faced jail without bail.

The Indonesian government dispatched a special ship, the KMM Umsini , to pick up about 5,000 migrants before the midnight deadline from Malaysia's Port Klang near the capital Kuala Lumpur, the embassy said Monday.

But Malaysia's immigration department enforcement director Ishak Mohamed told local media there had not been a last-minute surge of illegal immigrants leaving, meaning that up to 800,000 remain in the country.

Some in Sabah state on Borneo island have deserted their squatter homes and headed for areas where they hope they can remain safe from the 500,000 police and civilian volunteers set to hunt them down, The Star newspaper reported.

Bosses who employ more than five illegal immigrants were also expected to be covering their tracks after Ishak warned that he was pressing for courts to refuse them bail once they are arrested.

"The offence is a serious one, where the employers face a penalty of mandatory jail and whipping so we want them to be denied bail," he said.

Employers face up to a year in jail and fines of up to RM50,000 for each illegal worker, with those hiring more than five also liable to whipping.

Illegal immigrants can be jailed for up to two years, fined up to RM10,000 and given six strokes with a cane.

Tuesday's crackdown comes after a three-month amnesty in which an estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants took the opportunity to leave without facing any penalty.

The government has twice extended the amnesty, firstly at the request of the Indonesian government and again after the Dec 26 tsunami devastated the Indonesian province of Aceh.

Indonesian leader to visit

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said today Indonesia had not asked for any further extension and the sweep would go ahead as planned.

Asked whether the tough punishment facing illegal immigrants could hurt relations with Indonesia, he replied: "No, it has not strained our ties with any countries."

He told a news conference that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would visit Malaysia on Feb 14, describing it as "a prositive sign of a strong relationship between the two leaders and the two countries".

Most of the illegal migrants are from neighbouring Indonesia, but others are from the Philippines, Burma, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, drawn to relatively prosperous Malaysia by jobs in the construction, plantation and service industries.

Rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have strongly criticised the government's plan to deploy hundreds of thousands of members of volunteer neighbourhood security groups in the sweep.

The members of the People's Volunteer Corps, an organisation of uniformed part-timers who have some policing powers, will receive cash rewards for each migrant arrested, an economic incentive that Human Rights Watch worries could lead to "vigilantism".