Malaysia deports Indonesians

Malaysia deports Indonesians

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysian authorities deported 1,122 illegal Indonesian immigrants on Wednesday.

Malaysia's Bernama news agency reported that those deported, aged between three and 52, were put on five ships in the southern Malacca state and ferried to the Indonesian town of Dumai on Sumatra.

Scores of policemen supervised the deportation, which was part of a campaign to evict illegal workers from Malaysia.

The campaign began soon after Malaysia's economy began to slide in 1997 and jobs, especially in the construction industry, began to disappear.

The Indonesians, mostly males, had been in a detention camp for up to two months, Bernama said.

In a separate development a Malaysian Foreign Ministry official said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad will soon visit Jakarta after being asked to advise on how to spur Indonesia's economic recovery.

Mahathir will lead a business delegation to Indonesia, probably in March, the official told Reuters.

On Monday, visiting Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab handed Mahathir an invitation from President Abdurrahman Wahid asking him to renew "intimacy" between the two countries.

The dates of Mahathir's visit were not yet known. "It should be soon, probably in March," the official said.

It would be Mahathir's second meeting with Abdurrahman and his first trip to Indonesia since meeting Abdurrahman's predecessor, B.J. Habibie, in May for bilateral talks on the island of Batam.