About 8,000 Indonesians expelled from Malaysia following a crackdown on illegal immigrants are stranded in border camps where overcrowding has led thousands to become ill with malaria and tuberculosis, the Red Cross said today.

The workers have packed into six camps in Nunukan, a district in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province bordering Malaysia, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Virgil Grandfield, told AFP .

The chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross, Mar'ie Muhammad, described the situation along the border as "terrible, with migrants packed together like sardines".

The Indonesian Red Cross has been running four health posts and one mobile clinic in Nunukan for a month, treating 3,949 persons suffering from diseases such as malaria, dengue, tuberculosis and pneumonia, Grandfield said.

He said he expected the number of workers arriving at Nunukan to "skyrocket in these days and hours".

Nunukan is a key entry point for Indonesian migrant workers coming to and from Malaysia. Most of those in the camps do not have enough money to return to their villages and are hoping to return to Malaysia.

Fears of abuse

Malaysia this week launched a controversial operation to round up and deport hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, mainly Indonesians, following the end of a four-month amnesty.

Amnesty for Indonesian workers have been extended twice at Jakarta's request.

The rights group Amnesty International last month urged Malaysia to halt the planned deportation amid fears that migrants from Burma, Nepal and Aceh could face execution or torture if they were sent home.

But Malaysia has dismissed such fears, saying it exercised caution and would ensure humane treatment of the workers.

Rights groups have also expressed concern that the massive crackdown would lead to abuse.

Malaysia had estimated there were nearly a million illegal workers in the country, mostly from Indonesia but also from the Philippines, Burma, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

Some 382,000 took advantage of the amnesty which started at the end of October to depart without penalty.

But an estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants remain, many of them in the construction, plantation and service industries.