About 9,000 illegal foreign workers, about 4.4 percent of the total, are expected to face deportation this year as the government is waging a campaign to arrest ``unregistered aliens.''

The campaign against these workers has been stepped up since the Lee Myung-bak administration was launched in February.

President Lee told the labor minister in March that he does not want ``illegal foreign workers to stay in the country'' and that the government should come up with countermeasures.

Civic groups expressed concern that government officials, concerned only about numbers, may try too hard and cause injury or other human rights infringement during their searches.

Anxiety among foreign workers is higher than ever, especially after two were severely injured while leaping from the third floor of a building in Maseok, Gyeonggi Province, to avoid a crackdown last November, they said.

Officials of the immigration offices nationwide have been given a quota for the number of illegal residents they should arrest _ for Seoul 600 and Busan, 250. The total quota is made up of 3,000 per month from May to the end of July _ no quota has bee set beyond that.

The immigration office said it was not an order from the top but was made from the bottom. He said staff wrote the number they could handle and the central government just approved it. ``The quota will raise efficiency in the crackdown,'' an immigration office official said.

Some illegal sojourners have committed crimes here and these incidents have spawned negative sentiment against these guest workers. A Seoul professor said negative sentiment against illegal workers appears to be growing as the economy is slowing down and the job market gets tighter.

There are cases of immigration officials raiding churches, while some often turn up at workplaces and arrest unregistered people without giving notice to the owner of the facility or bringing legitimate warrants.

Lee Jeong-won, outreach and public relations director of the Migrants' Trade Union, said the officials violation of human rights has been a problem for many and the quota has made many overstaying foreigners nervous.

The Justice Ministry last Thursday deported two of the union's leaders _ Toran Limbu of Nepal and Abdus Sabur of Bangladesh.

``It shows clearly that the government has set its mind to get tough against us. The quota just proves what they are thinking,'' Lee said. She said the union is planning to hold a protest against the crackdown on May 25.

A total of 653,064 foreign laborers are living in Korea, including an estimated 202,817 illegal workers as of January, according to the Justice Ministry. The government estimates more than 20,000 illegal workers have resided here for a decade or longer.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr