Police raided a squatter settlement in a Malaysian jungle, burning down shacks and arresting more than 100 illegal immigrants, mainly from Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province, a human rights group said Wednesday.

Some of those detained in Tuesday's crackdown on the southern outskirts of Kuala Lumpur are believed to have documents issued by the UN's refugee agency identifying them as asylum seekers, the Malaysian chapter of Amnesty International said.

"With the government's rush to deport illegal immigrants, [it] has lost sight of the fact that they are first and foremost human beings entitled to certain rights," the group said in a statement. "The authorities should release all asylum seekers and refugees immediately and unconditionally."

Police and representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' office in Kuala Lumpur could not immediately be contacted.

Thousands of people from Aceh on Indonesia's Sumatra island have fled to neighboring Malaysia since May 2003, when Indonesian troops launched a major offensive against separatist rebels who have been fighting since 1976 for an independent homeland.

Wealthy, stable Malaysia has long attracted migrants, often fleeing poverty or violence, from around Southeast Asia. Though it relies heavily on foreign laborers for menial work, Malaysia regularly deports illegal immigrants amid concerns of rising crime among them.

Under international law, UN-recognized refugees cannot be deported involuntarily. But Malaysia hasn't signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and doesn't recognize political refugees.