Police say 745 of those taken into custody are foreign nationals living in the country illegally.

JOHANNESBURG - More than 800 people have been arrested across the country since last week in operations to net illegal immigrants and criminals.

Police say 745 of those taken into custody are foreign nationals living in the country illegally.

The raids were carried out by police with the backing of the military.

The police's Vishnu Naidoo said, "This has been noticed now is simply because of the incidents that have happened recently but in all of our operations, we have always detected foreign nationals without proper documentation."