Specially trained Malaysian officials conducted nighttime raids on building sites, plantations and restaurants waking hundreds of laborers and detaining those without proper documentation. Illegal immigration is a controversial subject in Malaysia because of an improving economy and education system that results in few natives willing to accept manual labor jobs. The raids followed a four-month amnesty period, when approximately 400,000 illegal immigrant workers voluntarily left the country.
See "Malaysia Hunts Down Illegal Migrants at Work Sites", Reuters, The New York Times, February 28, 2005