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illages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Marwan Jafar has said that the government will step up its measures to stop hundreds of Indonesians living on the border with Malaysia from moving permanently to the neighboring country.

However, the Home Ministry has denied that any exodus is taking place, insisting that the issue is down to uncertainty over the border with Malaysia.

Marwan said that his ministry was now working with other relevant ministries and the National Agency for Border Management (BNPP) to find solutions to the problem of cross-border exodus.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) politician added that the flow of migrants was heavier than previously thought.

'€œCases [of exodus] have also been reported in other border areas in North Kalimantan,'€ Marwan said in a statement.

He claimed that some villages in the area were almost empty, with the majority of residents having moved across the borders.

The local military commander in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, earlier reported that there had been an exodus of locals from three villages across the border into Malaysian territory.

Chief of Samarinda military command Brig. Gen. Nono Suharsono said that locals from three villages in newly formed North Kalimantan province had left their homes to stay temporarily in Malaysia.

'€œThey have moved across the border for economic reasons. They are working on plots of customary land that they control,'€ Nono said as quoted by Antara news wire.

Nono said that such exoduses had taken place in the past and were likely to continue in the future, especially when the area experienced long dry spells.

'€œIt happened in 1965 and on a larger scale in 1984 and 1985,'€ Nono said.

However, the Home Ministry has denied the reports that whole villages have emptied and their residents crossed the border into Malaysia.

The ministry'€™s director general for general administration, Agus Mulyana, said that there was no exodus occurring, and that what was deemed to be border crossings was a case of border confusion.

'€œThe truth is that the three villages, Simantipal, Sinapad and Lumbis Ogong, are claimed by the Malaysian government,'€ Agus said in a statement.

It would not be the first time Indonesia and Malaysia have been in involved in a dispute regarding borders.

The Indonesian Navy is still investigating whether a lighthouse currently being installed by Malaysia on Tanjung Datuk Island, which is located on the border between Indonesia'€™s West Kalimantan and Malaysia'€™s Sarawak state, is a violation of Indonesian territory.

Tanjung Datuk lies between the district of Paloh in the regency of Sambas, West Kalimantan, and the Malaysian state of Sarawak. The area, which includes the sand ridge of Gosong Niger in the sea and Camar Wulan on the main island, is disputed by the two neighboring countries.

The construction of the lighthouse on Tanjung Datuk is the latest encroachment by Malaysia on Indonesia'€™s maritime territory, having previously violated Indonesian territory in the Ambalat bloc in the Sulawesi Sea.

Earlier last week, Marwan said that the Indonesian government was investigating the claim that three villages in North Kalimantan were actually in Malaysian territory.