10 Indonesians die as their boat sinks off Malaysia

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 09/30/2008 1:58 PM | World

The Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed Tuesday that 10 out of 11 people killed in the boat accident off Malaysia were all Indonesians, wanting to return for the Muslim Idul Fitri celebrations.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Kristiarto Legowo said a total of 112 people were rescued and currently being treated at Tengku Ampunan hospital in Klang Selangor, Malaysia.

"Ten people were all Indonesians, while another one has no documents," Kristianto told tempointeraktif.com

He said the wooden boat left Cermat Island in Malaysia and headed to Balai Karimun in Indonesia. But the boat capsized soon after leaving Cermat Island at 8.00 a.m. local time.

Police suspected the boat was overcrowded with Indonesian migrants wanting to return for the Muslim Idul Fitri celebrations this week.

But Kristianto did not want to speculate if the majority of the passengers were illegal workers.

"I don't want to speculate whether they are illegal or not. But our temporary findings show that some of them did not bring documents, but the documents could have been drown together with the boat," he said.

There are more than 2 million legal migrants and an estimated 700,000 illegals, mostly from Indonesia, working mainly low-paying jobs in Malaysia. (rid)