Baradan Kuppusamy, Kuala Lumpur – Despite the devastation inflicted on South and Southeast Asia by the December 26 tsunami, the disaster has been unable to make compassion-fatigued Malaysia balk at its latest order: the deportation of all undocumented workers back to their tsunami-hit countries.

The deadline for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to voluntarily leave Malaysia or face arrest and punishment expired on Monday. The government now says that armed raiding parties will begin rounding up illegal foreign workers and their employers after a three-month amnesty and send them back to their home countries, regardless of whether these migrants end up in emergency relief camps surviving on rations handed out by charities.

Malaysian human-rights groups are criticizing Kuala Lumpur for implementing a policy that will add to the burdens already faced by countries devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami. Others have questioned such a lack of compassion at a time when Malaysia itself is coming to grips with the devastation caused by the killer waves that lashed its own coast, killing nearly 70 people.

Most of the illegal immigrants have come from neighboring Indonesia, which has twice persuaded Malaysia to extend the expulsion deadline. But although Indonesia's resources are still stretched coping with the tsunami devastation in Aceh province, Malaysia has signaled that it will wait no longer.

For tea stall helper Abdul Rauf Chinanaina – a 19-year-old Tamil Muslim from the tsunami-devastated coastal settlement of Nagapattinam in southern India's Tamil Nadu state – the clock is mercilessly ticking away. An undocumented migrant worker, Rauf must return home to a devastated village. Otherwise, he becomes a hunted man if he stays.

"The waves killed my father, two sisters and many relatives, but I dare not return to help or pray for them because the debt collector and his gang are all alive and would demand repayment of the loan I got from the thugs," Rauf said while serving customers at a roadside tea stall in the Ampang suburb, north of the Malaysian capital.

The Malaysian government is making final preparations – readying the police, immigration and a 500,000-member civil-defense force called RELA (People's Volunteer Corps) – for a nationwide crackdown on undocumented workers starting on Tuesday.

Some RELA members will be armed when raiding illegal settlements and squatter communities where undocumented workers live. Local people are also being urged to help by passing on information to the authorities.

"This time we will be relentless," said Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. "We have extended the amnesty twice and this time there is absolutely no excuse for them to remain."

If caught, Rauf will face five years in jail, whipping and deportation for overstaying his visitor's visa and working without valid permits. His particulars, including his photograph and thumb prints, would be taken to ensure he never returns.

"I took a Rp57,000 [US$1,300] loan to pay agents who brought me here and gave me this job," he told Inter Press Service. That was seven months ago, and it will be many more months – if not years – before Rauf can save enough money from his meager wages of RM12 ($3) a day to repay the loan and the 20% interest.

More than 8,800 people have been confirmed dead in Tamil Nadu since the December 26 tsunami struck, spawned by an undersea earthquake in Indonesia's northern Sumatra. More than 220,000 people, in a dozen Indian Ocean-rim countries, perished when killer waves lashed the coastlines of South and Southeast Asia.

In Tamil Nadu, thousands more are still missing. At least 140,000 Indians, mostly from fishing families, are in relief centers.

"The tsunami has wiped out any little chances of unemployment in Nagapattinam, and many of my relatives want to come here," said Rauf. "I told them about the crackdown but they still want to come.

"We Tamil Muslims are proud...we want to earn our livelihood," he said. "We don't want to be in refugee camps, surviving on donated food."

The majority of Malaysia's estimated 2 million undocumented workers are from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India – the three countries worst hit by the tsunami. Others are from Nepal, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.

Malaysia itself was not spared by the killer waves. Scores of people in fishing communities were swept from beaches near the northern island of Penang, and at least 68 people have been confirmed dead.

"We have made so many compromises before. Therefore, any 'illegal' who is arrested after the amnesty would be subjected to stern action," said Deputy Prime Minister Najib. "We are not closing the doors on all foreign workers. They can return as legal workers but with proper documents," he added.

The amnesty was due to end October 29 last year but was extended first on the government's own decision and later because of an appeal from newly elected Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The start of the crackdown was delayed by another month following the December 26 tsunami, after appeals by Malaysian human-rights groups.

"Deporting migrant workers to unstable, disaster-stricken areas would contribute to the humanitarian crisis rather than alleviate its effects," said Malaysia's premier human-rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia, or SUARAM. "It also places unnecessary pressure on the governments of the tsunami-hit countries, who are struggling with the enormity of such a tragedy."

Rights organizations also oppose the "haste" of the crackdown and the use of RELA, the People's Volunteer Corp, which they say is a poorly trained, "notorious trigger-happy para-military group".

In addition to the carrying out the crackdown, RELA volunteers will get cash rewards for each immigrant arrested, a move condemned by US-based Human Rights Watch as bounty hunting.

"It is a dangerous precedent to arm RELA members to go after undocumented workers," said Irene Fernandez, director of TENAGANITA, a human-rights non-governmental organization that champions the rights of undocumented workers. "This move will lead to abuse of power and create a form of vigilantism that brings about racism and violence," Fernandez told Inter Press Service.

"There is absolutely no reason to use firearms on unarmed, ordinary migrant workers," she added. "Their only fault is that they do not hold proper documents. Undocumented workers are not criminals." Over the past few days foreign missions here were busy issuing exit passes to their nationals to leave before the deadline on Monday. Ferry tickets to Indonesia have been snapped up, and airlines flying from Malaysia to India, Sri Lanka and Nepal are fully booked.

"I am leaving for Sri Lanka next week," said undocumented restaurant worker Arjuna Gunatilake, 28. "But I will return when my money runs out."