(AFP) Mass deportations, threats of whipping and an apology from Indonesia over the weekend marked a crackdown on illegal immigrants in Malaysia amid economic hard times.

Some 2,400 Indonesians were deported yesterday, following the repatriation last Wednesday of 1,618 who were involved in a riot at a detention centre where four housing blocks were burnt to the ground.

Indonesia's Manpower and Transmigration Minister Jacob Nua Wea, who was present for the deportation, apologised for problems caused by illegal immigrants from his country.

"The rioting and arson at the depot was the third (incident) involving Indonesians and I hope it will not recur."

He said he hoped the government understood that the Indonesians were not in Malaysia to create trouble, but had come looking for jobs.

Indonesia, he said, had one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, with about 36 million jobless people.

Also at the weekend, the Malaysian government announced a proposal to whip foreign workers caught without valid documents.

Whipping of first-time offenders

Immigration Department director Mohd Jamal Kamdi said changes to the Immigration Act were expected to be finalised in March next year, making even first-time offenders liable to be whipped.

"The amendments are more or less finalised," he was quoted as saying in yesterday's New Straits Times .

"We have been soft for too long."

Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung told parliament Monday that the proposal to impose whipping on those who entered Malaysia illegally was expected to reduce the problem.

In September, the government set a target of catching 52,000 illegal immigrants in a nationwide blitz by the end of the year and has said it plans to deport about 10,000 illegal Indonesian immigrants every month.

Malaysia is also a favoured destination for illegal job-seekers from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Burma, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Immigration officials estimate that there are about 450,000 illegal immigrants in the country.

On top of this there are some 600,000 registered foreign workers, with the majority coming from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand.

Less dependence

With retrenchments on the rise amid an export slowdown and the global economic downturn, Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn said at the weekend the government planned to reduce the country's dependence on foreign workers.

He said they accounted for the outflow of about RM5 billion in foreign currencies each year.

"The irony is that while we are seeing a rise in workers retrenched, Malaysia still continues to be dependent on foreign workers," Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn said.

Gross domestic product contracted 1.3 percent in the third quarter, the first year-on-year contraction since the first quarter of 1999, amid sharp falls in manufacturing output.

But Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said last week that October data showed Malaysia's economy was performing well and the country could achieve positive growth in the fourth quarter.

The government last month cut its growth forecast for this year for a second time to between 1.0-2.0 percent, and has imposed a range of fiscal measures to boost consumer spending.