Some 450 civilian volunteers and 13 immigration officers carried out the first raid shortly after midnight on a construction site in Cheras, south of Kuala Lumpur, which netted 62 Indonesians, officials said.

Some of the illegal immigrants fled into surrounding forests under cover of darkness in an attempt to escape the dragnet but later surrendered to the officials, who were armed with batons while six officers also carried side arms.

The 62 Indonesians, including 27 from tsunami-hit Aceh province, were being held at Semenyih detention centre south of here, Mohamad Amirudin Mohamad Yusof, director of the 300,000-strong civilian security force who led the raid, told reporters.

"It is a successful operation. No one was injured. We will conduct more raids," he said. The volunteers are paid 80 ringgit (21 dollars) for each illegal caught in the nationwide operation, codenamed "Ops Tegas".

The crackdown against illegal immigrants, mainly Indonesians, marks the end of an amnesty, which has twice been extended at Jakarta's request.

Malaysia had estimated there were nearly a million illegal workers in the country, mostly from Indonesia but also from the Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

Some 382,000 took advantage of the amnesty declared at the end of October and had departed before it expired at midnight Monday.