Malaysia will intensify ongoing efforts to round up illegal immigrants beginning next month, the Straits Times reports, quoting the country’s immigration department. More than 3,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested nationwide under an operation launched on July 1, according to director general Mustafar Ali. Fortify Rights legal director Eric Paulsen, who criticized the move, noted that such a broad-based immigration sweep was wrong, as seen from past experience. He warned that “there will be serious human rights abuses,” as quoted by Free Malaysia Today. Malaysia periodically conducts mass deportation of illegal migrants, the last one being around July last year. At that time, officials said there were 600,000 foreign nationals working illegally in Malaysia.