At least 161 Nepalis have been reportedly detained by the Malaysian authorities in the Malacca state, 148 kilometres south east of Malaysia’s capital city Kuala Lumpur.

According to a report in a government-run news agency Bernama, the 161 Nepalis arrested in the Malacca state are among 971 foreigners who were detained in a crackdown that began on Friday midnight.

Migrant workers from Nepal, Indonesia, Burma, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and China were arrested during the raid.

The exact number of arrested Nepalis could not be independently verified. There are over 500,000 Nepalis working in Malaysia.

The crackdown was launched hours after Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced “suspension of recruitment of foreigners and deportation of illegal workers”.

A total of 2,182 foreign nationals were screened in the 12-hour operation, the news agency quoted a Malaysian Immigration Department official. Malaysian Immigration Department Director General Datuk Sakib Kusmi said they were arrested on different charges—of not having identification documents, overstaying and holding unrecognised cards of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

It is learnt that the detainees will be placed at immigration detention centres for investigation and would be deported to their respective countries.

Until Thursday this year, 8,058 illegal migrants were deported to their home countries, reports say.

The Malaysian authorities conducted raids in Cyberjaya, Kuala Terengganu, Bukit Mertajam, Ipoh and Seremban between January 1 and February 19.

It is unclear whether there were Nepalis arrested during the raids from the places other than Malacca. The arrestees include women and juveniles as well. Malaysia is home to around 2.1 million migrant workers and an equal number of people work in the Southeast Asian country as illegal workers.

The Malaysian authorities last year also had detained around 60,000 illegal migrant workers.