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Nine bodies, 22 survivors returned to West Nusa Tenggara
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Under investigation -- Riau Islands Police chief Brig. Gen. Sam Budigusdian (center) displays pictures of two suspects connected to last week's Batam boat accident in a press conference in Batam on Nov. 7. (Antara/MN Kanwa)
T
he West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) administration, via its social affairs and manpower and transmigration agencies, has returned the bodies of nine Indonesian migrant workers killed in last week’s boat accident in Batam, Riau Islands, and 22 others who survived the incident, to their hometowns across the province.
They arrived at Lombok International Airport (LIA) on different flights from Sunday to Monday.
“On Sunday, the bodies of five dead victims arrived at LIA and we facilitated their return to their hometowns in Central and East Lombok. Today [Monday], we received four more bodies. So in total, nine NTB residents died in the incident,” the NTB Manpower and Transmigration Agency’s Indonesian migrant worker placement and protection division head, M. Zaenal, said in Mataram on Monday.
He said the 22 migrant workers who had already returned to their hometowns were among the 26 NTB workers who survived the incident. “Three people are still being questioned for a victim identification process in Batam, while another one has decided to join with his wife to return to her hometown in Padang, West Sumatra,” said Zaenal.
Meanwhile, the Manpower Ministry’s director for Indonesian migrant workers’ placement and protection, R. Soes Hindharno, said that although almost all Indonesian migrant workers killed in the Batam boat accident were illegal, as Indonesian citizens they had the right to get assistance and facilitation to return to their hometowns.
As reported earlier, a boat carrying 98 passengers, including two babies and three crew members, sank in Nongsa waters, Batam, Riau Islands, on Nov. 2, killing 54 people on board. Six others remain missing. (ebf)
