JOHOR BARU: TWO drowned and 17 other illegal immigrants are missing after their boat carrying 80 people capsized off Tanjung Piai near Pontian here on Monday, following a collision with a patrol boat.
Another 61 people, comprising 10 women and 51 men, including a pregnant woman, were rescued in the 11.30pm incident, which took place three nautical miles southeast of Tanjung Piai.
The boat was believed to be ferrying the 80 Indonesian illegal immigrants home for the Hari Raya celebrations.
The authorities immediately launched a joint search-and-rescue operation involving personnel from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), police, Fire and Rescue Department and Civil Defence Department.
Johor Baru MMEA enforcement chief Captain Aminuddin Abd Rashid said the drama unfolded after the agency received news of a boat maneuvering in a suspicious manner.
“A patrol boat with three enforcement officers, which was part of the Ops Tumpas enforcement operation, was sent to check following the alert,” he said at the MMEA headquarters here yesterday.
Aminuddin said when MMEA patrol team spotted the boat, they were not sure whether the boat was transporting contraband cigarettes or firecrackers.
“All officers knew at that time was that the boat tried to get away when MMEA announced their presence. The tekong turned aggressive and rammed his boat into the patrol boat twice.”
Aminuddin said the boat then tried to evade authorities’ vessels by using two of its four engines.
“It was when the boat attempted to outrun a patrol boat that it swerved into the path of another patrol boat, causing our boat to ram into it from the rear. The impact of the collision threw the passengers into the sea. Three officers tried their best to rescue the victims.”
Following the incident, the marine police, Civil Defence Department and Fire and Rescue Department later arrived to assist in search-and-rescue operations.
The survivors were transported to a jetty in Danga Bay and sent to the MMEA headquarters here before being handed over to the Immigration Department.
Aminuddin said two more Indonesian men were later rescued, but it could not ascertained if they were the tekong.
He said 10 of the survivors were sent to Sultanah Aminah Hospital for treatment and four had since been discharged.
The two bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Their remains will be surrendered to the Indonesian Consulate which will make arrangements to send them home.
He said preliminary investigations revealed that the illegal immigrants paid RM1,500 per head to be on board the boat to transport them from Tanjung Adang in Gelang Patah to Batam in Indonesia.
Aminuddin said search-and-rescue operations would continue for the missing 17 victims.
