KL to deport 1,400 illegal TKIs

KL to deport 1,400 illegal TKIs

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will deport nearly 1,400 illegal Indonesian immigrants (TKIs) this week, an official said on Wednesday.

The first batch of 599 deportees left Malaysia's southern Johor state on Wednesday by ferry for the port city of Surabaya, said Abdul Rahim Endut, an officer handling the operation.

Another 790 Indonesians, currently at a detention center, would be deported by Friday, he told the national news agency, Bernama.

Police arrested the immigrants last year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital city. Many have served prison terms for illegally entering the country.

Migrant workers from neighboring Indonesia have long been the backbone of the construction sector in Malaysia, one of Southeast Asia's richest nations and a magnet for immigrants from the region's poorer and less stable areas.

But the workers include hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens. In a crackdown last year, authorities expelled over 300,000 illegal immigrants, mostly Indonesians and Filipinos. -- AP