Kuala Lumpur – Around 2,000 illegal immigrants detained in a Malaysian camp rioted and burnt down some of their quarters overnight before police fired tear gas to re-establish control, newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The New Straits Times quoted witnesses as saying detainees at the Pekan Nenas camp in the southern Peninsular Malaysian state of Johor, most of whom were Indonesians, began rioting shortly after breaking their Ramadan fast.

"They set fire to cloths. The blaze razed four or five blocks that housed the male Indonesian inmates," State Immigration Department official Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Mahmud was quoted as saying by The Sun newspaper.

"These inmates are due to be deported on Saturday," he said, adding that Bangladeshis, Singaporeans, Thais and Vietnamese were among the other detainees.

The official said several inmates who suffered minor injuries were sent to a local hospital with the remainder being transferred to other camps in the neighbouring states of Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Pahang.

Malaysia carried out its largest ever deportation of illegal immigrants last month, sending back around 2,500 Indonesian workers on two Indonesian naval ships under armed escort.

Illegal immigration is a big problem for this southeast Asian nation, which has a population of 23 million and is a favoured destination for workers from its more populous, poorer neighbours.

The country is home to more than a million foreign workers, most of them from Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines.

The government said it would begin deporting about 300,000 overseas workers from last month to cut down on foreign labour in certain industries and free up jobs for locals affected by the economic slowdown.