KL police detain 439 Indonesians

KL police detain 439 Indonesians

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Police detained 536 illegal immigrants, most of them Indonesians, in a pre-dawn swoop on building sites and housing estates in Shah Alam, capital of central Malaysia's Selangor state yesterday.

Shah Alam deputy police chief Shair Mohamed Nor said 439 of them were Indonesians while the rest were Bangladeshis, Burmese and Pakistanis.

"The operation focussed on construction sites and housing estates suspected to be hideouts of foreigners who entered the country illegally," Shair was quoted by the Bernama news agency as saying.

They were then taken to two detention centers.

Shair said the operation was carried out following reports of foreigners heading to Shah Alam to work as construction workers.

Selangor's chief minister Muhammad Muhammad Taib last month ordered a crack down on illegal settlements set up immigrants, some of whom entered the country without valid permits.

Malaysia has enjoyed eight straight years of robust economic growth, surpassing eight percent annually, leading to a shortage of unskilled and semi-skilled workers in the plantation and construction sectors.

More than 2.5 billion ringgit (US$1 billion) is remitted abroad yearly by the 1.2 million legal foreign workers mainly from the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh.