A pro-Aceh campaign group has claimed that the police arrested 40 Acehnese asylum seekers last Sunday during a pre-dawn raid at a migrant community village in Penang.

Solidarity for Aceh co-ordinator K Shan said the 37 men and three women were among a larger group of Indonesian undocumented migrants arrested during a 4am operation at Kampung Sungai Nibong.

He said the group has since been sent to the Langkap immigration detention camp.

However, when contacted, Langkap camp authorities could not confirm the arrival of the Acehnese although a spokesperson said that more than 100 individuals were brought to the camp yesterday.

"The people were brought in from various areas and they are of different nationalities. I don't know any specific group of Acehnese," he said.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Kuala Lumpur said a it is in the process of seeking confirmation if the detained persons included Acehnese asylum seekers, and if so, whether they had registered at with the agency.

"No one has tried to contact us directly. Our team of officers are following up on this matter," said an official.

The refugee agency has undertaken to issue temporary protection letters to individuals fleeing armed conflict in the northern Sumatran province of Aceh, provided that they register themselves with the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur.

However, to date, these letters have not been accepted by the Malaysian government on grounds that it is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

'Stronger presence needed'

Despite this, Shan said any arrests of Acehnese by the authorities would reflect badly on the government which has already received bad press from an incident last August when the police arrested more than 200 asylum seekers outside the UNHCR building.

Although it had initially intended to deport all the asylum seekers, the majority of whom were Acehnese, the government later agreed to suspend forcible repatriations to the strife-torn province.

To ensure better protection for asylum seekers, Shan urged the UNHCR to establish a presence in the northern regions of Malaysia, where there are large communities of Acehnese.

"The UNHCR has not given sufficient attention to asylum seekers who reside in the north. A lot of them have not registered with the agency because they have been unable to travel to Kuala Lumpur," he claimed.

"One consequence of the (Acehnese' lack of documentation) is mass arrests and deportations."

Based on previous reports, it is believed that most Acehnese have found their way into Malaysia via boat landings on the northern shores of the country, due to proximity to their home province.

Acehnese have been fleeing their home province for years due to the protracted conflict between the Indonesian military forces and the separatist Free Aceh Movement rebel.

However, fighting has escalated since last May following the collapse of peace talks and the launch of an all-out military offensive.