Lewa Pardomuan, Sandakan (Malaysia) – Occasional trucks carrying palmoil fruits to nearby mills are the only sound shattering the calm for Indonesian plantation worker Nur Hajirah and her family in this quiet corner of Malaysia.

But riots involving Indonesian migrants several hundred kilometres across the sea in another corner of the Southeast Asian nation, may soon change all that. Malaysia's government has responded with a crackdown on migrant workers, including 100,000 in the Borneo island state of Sabah that has been Hajirah's home for the past 15 years.

Hajirah, who applies fertiliser to trees on one of the major estates that cover 1.1 million hectares of Sabah, says she cannot understand why the riots took place. "They shouldn't do that. They should behave because they are working in a foreign country," said Hajirah, 35, who arrived from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi 15 years ago.

Hajirah, who married a fellow worker from Sulawesi a few years back, has two children growing up at the plantation, where rows of palmoil trees dominate the landscape for miles. Her family lives in a wooden house built by her employer with a nearby soccer field, a civic centre and day care for children.

Plantation owners in Sabah generally provide their workers with lodging, electricity, running water and medication. New arrivals earn eight ringgit ($2.11) a day. Pay rises depend on productivity.

West of Sabah in the state of Negeri Sembilan, hundreds of textile workers rioted in January after police tried to detain suspected drug users. Angered by this and other violence involving immigrant labourers, Malaysia has banned new workers from Indonesia and pledged to halve the 900,000 currently registered there.

Illegal Indonesian immigrants also made up the bulk of detainees at a detention camp in the southern state of Johor, where rioters burned a dormitory to the ground. It is a world away from the silence of a Sabah plantation.

"I am happy. Nothing has ever hurt me since I moved here," said Suluk, another Sulawesi migrant who works as a gardener on an oil palm estate in Sandakan. "It's not good to create trouble. We should concentrate on our job," said Suluk, who says he is 85 years old.

Plantations growing

Indonesian migrants' home customs are much in evidence in Sabah capital Kota Kinabalu, where smoke from clove-scented cigarettes smuggled in from Kalimantan hangs in the air and native Indonesian dishes are widely available.

The state relies heavily on foreign workers, mostly from Indonesia, after a rapid 30 percent expansion in oil palm plantations in the last five years provided job opportunities shunned by locals. It also has migrant workers from the Philippines, who work mostly in construction.

The state, whose economy depends mainly on agriculture, became Malaysia's largest palmoil growing area in 2000. Malaysia is the world's largest producer of palm oil, used extensively by food manufacturers in the West in everything from pretzels to cake mixes. There are 500 oil palm estates and small holders in Sabah, which is also Malaysia's main cocoa growing area.

Plantation owners said they understand government frustration but argue their region, bordering Indonesia's Kalimantan, is mostly trouble-free. "The Indonesians are good workers. Historically, we never have problems with them. We praise our Indonesian workers for their dedication," said one plantation owner.

"The trouble makers are those who are doing odd jobs in town. Those who are not fully employed and who are taking advantage of our hospitality," said the planter, who declined to be named. Another said: "There are of course problems, such as thefts. But there have never been any serious threats. I think plantation is the most peaceful sector."

Malaysia is home to more than a million foreign workers, most of them from poorer countries like Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines. Indonesians also work in the construction and manufacturing sectors and many work as housemaids, leaving various islands in the giant archipelago such as Java, Madura, Sulawesi and Timor to look for jobs in their richer neighbour.