KUALA LUMPUR -- A Myanmar group Monday urged Malaysia to give temporary shelter to 28 Rohingya Muslims who sought refuge at the UN Refugee Agency's compound here amid a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

The 28 Rohingyas entered the UN High Commisioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Center in the capital on Friday to seek refugee status but were handed over to the immigration department Saturday.

The Royingya information center office here protested the UNHCR action, saying the 28 were among some 7,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslim refugees stranded in Malaysia since fleeing persecution by Myanmar's military regime 1988, AFP reported.

"As the authority of Malaysia recently intensifies deportation of illegal immigrants, they are in great need of shelter," Secretary-General Syedul Amin Syed Ahmad said in a statement.

"They cannot return to Myanmar now as the prevalent situation there is still unsafe for the Rohingyas' life, liberty and Human Rights," he said.

"We beg the government of Malaysia... for sympathy so as to give us temporary shelter until our return to our homeland is safe for our life."

The move to seek asylum by the 28 Myanmar immigrants came amid an intense police crackdown on illegal immigrants after recent riots by Indonesian workers here.

Police said Monday they had detained some 700 illegal immigrants under a nationwide operation since the first riot on January 17.

The Rohingya information center criticised the UNHCR for its "inhuman treatment" in surrendering the group to Malaysian authorities and for its failure to help the oppressed Rohingya community.

It urged the UNHCR to "treat Rohingya Muslims equally at par with other asylum seekers and stop such attitude of inhuman treatment against Rohingya asylum seekers and refugees in Malaysia."

Malaysian immigration deputy director Ahmad Ismail said the immigrants would be placed in a detention camp pending approval from Myanmar for their repatriation.