On Jan. 27, Indonesia and Malaysia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in respect to the common guidelines concerning treatment of fishermen by maritime law enforcement agencies of the two countries.

It was signed in Bali, where the Indonesian government was represented by the Indonesia Maritime Security Coordinating Board (Bakorkamla) and the National Security Council. The Prime Minister’s Department represented Malaysia.

It is not uncommon to discover fishermen are captured or chased away by patrols when fishing around border areas. Interestingly, fishermen are often captured for allegedly crossing the border, even though no maritime boundaries have been in place. The capture usually takes place in a border area claimed by both countries, usually referred to as overlapping area. In this case, no agreed maritime boundaries are in place and border crossing is usua...