There are claims that the Indonesian military and police have been extorting bribes from Acehnese asylum seekers and selling them into slavery. The claims have been backed by refugee advocates working closely with the UN refugee agency in Malaysia, where thousands of Acehnese are facing expulsion under a government crackdown on illegal workers.

Presenter/Interviewer: Marion MacGregor

Speakers: Marty Natalegawa, Indonesian government spokesman; Ahmad Shabrimi, lawyer and volunteer with the Malaysian-based non-government organisation, Citizens International; Parmizi, a co-ordinator of the Aceh Refugee Centre in Malaysia; Saiful, Acehnese deportee from Malaysia

MacGregor: In the Malaysian government's latest drive to get rid of foreign workers, two million people, most of them Indonesians, face detention or deportation in the next few months. Around 20,000 of them are believed to be from Aceh, where the Indonesian military launched a huge operation in 2003 against rebels fighting for independence.

Kuala Lumpur doesn't recognise asylum seekers, so all the Acehnese living in Malaysia are classified as illegals. Ahmad Shabrimi a lawyer and volunteer with the Malaysian-based non-government organisation, Citizens International.

Shabrimi: They are doing odd jobs over here, and trying to survive basically. But of course the government or the authorities will just classify them as illegal immigrants and as in the case of any illegal immigrants, they will just round them up and send them to detention centres. They claim themselves to be Acehnese, and they say they don't want to be deported because they are asylum seekers, and the government puts them in special centre. And then, because the situation is quite horrible, the asylum seekers would have no other option but to voluntarily go back. They're forced, they've got no other option but to leave Malaysia.

MacGregor: When they arrive back in Indonesia, the Acehnese are usually arrested and detained by the authorities. Parmizi, a co-ordinator of the Aceh refugee centre in Malaysia who also works closely with the UNHCR, says many people have gone missing, and some have been sold into slavery.

Parmizi: Some case, the people after arrested by military in Indonesia, they sell to some company and working for them, not to pay any more.

MacGregor: The military are selling them to companies in Indonesia?

Parmizi: Yes, yes.

MacGregor: Which part of the military?

Parmizi: I think the military is working together with bandits and also officials, like immigration in Indonesia. In Dumai they have one house, or one office, belonging to bandits, working together with military. And the Acehnese refugees in this house need to pay 120,000 Rupiah. After ten days, the refugees cannot pay, they are sell to one company.

MacGregor: What companies?

Parmizi: In the forest

MacGregor: Okay, logging companies?

Parmizi: Yeah, logging companies, yeah.

MacGregor: Saiful worked illegally for two years in Malaysia until he was arrested in May and sent to Dumai in Riau province in Indonesia. After being detained for one night, he says he paid the equivalent of about fifty US dollars for his freedom. He's now gone into hiding.

Saiful: I paid people working with the Indonesian police and soldiers to be released from Riau. About 200 Ringgit. It was a bribe. There were many other people in the same situation. You were allowed to go if you paid the money. If you refused, you would be sold to owners of Indonesian logging firms, as slave labour.

MacGregor: Indonesian government spokesman, Marty Natalegawa, describes the allegations as far-fetched, and an effort by Acehnese to evoke international sympathy.

Marty: It's trying to turn the whole thing on its head isn't it. I mean from our perspective, the Indonesian government's perspective, we've always said, that many of the Acehnese who are in Malaysia, and who have in the past sought to obtain some kind of refugee status were largely there for economic reasons and tried to convert their status to obtain refugee status and hopefully to become resettled in some third country. Now, for this type of individual to come and make these extremely serious allegations, I mean this is quite extraordinary, and of course we would want to find out exactly the facts and the details so that we can look into it.

MacGregor: Many more people are expected to be deported from Malaysia to Indonesia in the coming months. But Marty Natalegawa says the authorities on both sides are co-operating to make sure there's no risk of corruption or illegal activity.

Marty: This is a matter which is now being looked at being prepared by both governments, the Indonesian government and the Malaysian government, to ensure that the deportation process will be done in an orderly manner. You know, I mean Indonesia is a large country, but at the same time, I think it's rather misleading and it's quite incorrect to try to give the impression that there are far-flung points in our country where as if it some kind of a lawless and anything goes type of situation. That's not the case.