More than a thousand illegal aliens and South Korean activists held a rally in central Seoul Sunday. They urged the government to stop deportations of illegal migrant workers and to take steps toward legalizing their status.

After the four-hour rally, the protesters marched down a park in central Seoul. No clashes with police were reported.

Another group of some one-thousand activists and ethnic Koreans from China also held a separate rally in the capital, calling on the government to grant an immediate amnesty to ethnic Koreans and guarantee them free visits to South Korea.

The foreign workers have been staging demonstrations since the government launched a crackdown on illegal migrant workers following the passage of a bill in August, allowing firms to employ only legally documented foreign migrant workers.