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74 feared drowned in East Nusa Tenggara

A motorized boat carrying 74 illegal Afghan immigrants, believed to be heading for Australia, went missing in the Sape Strait, West Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), on Wednesday

Yemris Fointuna (The Jakarta Post)
Kupang
Thu, July 9, 2009

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74 feared drowned in East Nusa Tenggara

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motorized boat carrying 74 illegal Afghan immigrants, believed to be heading for Australia, went missing in the Sape Strait, West Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), on Wednesday. A Search and Rescue (SAR) team has been deployed but had not located the missing vessel at the time of printing.

Head of the Labuanbajo Port in West Manggarai, Pariman, said the boat was reported missing at 1 a.m. on Wednesday. Together with the SAR team, his office has been searching for the missing people since 4 a.m. but has found nothing.

"Both the position of the boat and the fate of the passengers remain unknown," he said via phone on Wednesday afternoon.

He added his office received the information about the missing boat from the Tenau Port administrator in Kupang and the National Police, which forwarded a message from the Australian police.

"The message asks for a favor from a West Manggarai SAR team to help find a boat with 74 illegal immigrants on board that is reportedly missing in the Sape Strait."

"We will continue searching around the location believed to be the site of the accident *off the coast of Komodo Island*," he said.

Pariman added that no conclusions could be made regarding the fate of the would-be immigrants or the ship's crew.

"We will continue coordinating with the locals, who have been asked to report to us as soon as they locate any of the victims."

This is the third incident of a boat carrying illegal immigrants through the area in the past six months.

In June, a boat carrying 71 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan ran into trouble in waters south of Sumba Island. All 71 people on board survived.

In January, a boat carrying 18 illegal immigrants, who escaped from the Kupang detention center, sunk off Rote Strait, killing four of them. Nine survived are five were declared missing. Their bodies have never been found.

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