KOTA TINGGI – The capsized boat which was carrying 50 illegal immigrants from Indonesia and causing the death of 11 individuals is believed to come from Lombok.
Deputy Operations Director from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) Johor, Maritime Captain Simon Templer Lo AK Tusa said that the incident happened at 4.30 am at Tanjung Balau due to bad weather and strong current.
All illegal immigrants (PATI) were believed to have stopped for transit at Batam after they left Lombok in a speedboat to enter the Johor waters.
The wave height was between 3.7 metres to 4.5 metres when the incident happened.
“Based on the information from the 14 survivors, they came from Lombok. The boat would usually take 15 minutes to reach the Johor East waters in Kota Tinggi from Batam.
“Based on the cases earlier, we believe that the boat entered our national water at around 1.00 am during the bad weather.
“This is the first case involving the entry of illegal immigrants from Lombok at Johor East. The cases earlier involved illegal immigrants who live around the Batam Islands,” he said during a Search and Rescue Operation news conference at the Tanjung Balau beach today.
According to Simon, they are still searching for 25 other individuals.
“The Search and Rescue Operation has started since 8.00 am this morning. We have not decided on when to end the operation. We will study the situation,” he said.
When asked about the status of the 25 missing illegal immigrants, Simon said that the duration of the operation may take four until 10 days.
“I cannot confirm if they are safe or not because we haven’t conduct thorough investigation on the 14 survivors,” he said.
159 members from the Royal Malaysia Police, Fire and Rescue Department, Malaysian Armed Forces, Ministry of Health and the Civil Defence Force are involved in the operation. -MalaysiaGazette
