Malaysia will send back about 7,200 people to Indonesia, which wants the most vulnerable people, including women and children held in detention centres to be returned first, said Femmy Eka Kartika Putri of Indonesia’s coordinating ministry for human development.

Millions of undocumented workers from Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh work in Malaysia, mostly in the plantation, construction and manufacturing sectors.

But Malaysia has toughened its stance during the pandemic, arresting and deporting thousands of undocumented migrants.

Covid-19 cases and deaths hit record levels last month in Malaysia, which has the most cases per capita in Southeast Asia.

Malaysia’s foreign ministry directed queries on the move to the immigration department, which declined to comment.

Wahyu Susilo, founder of the Migrant Care, a non-governmental group, said authorities were scrambling to accommodate the planned influx, with no system in place to ensure adequate care, such as social assistance.

“There are no specific mitigation efforts post-deportation,” he said.