Rescue Mission of Capsized Boat Likely to End Today

Liputan6.com, Jakarta The Director of Indonesian Citizens Protection and Legal Aid from the Foreign Ministry, Muhammad Iqbal recently informs regarding the search upon victims of capsized wooden boat which carried as many as 100 Indonesians on board in the evening of 3 September 2015.

The wooden boat was reportedly overloaded thereby causing for it to sank off, leaving dozens dead. The boat was carrying mostly Indonesian migrants.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Arrmanatha Nasir has previously informed that the search on victims will continue as long as all bodies have not yet been identified. The search however, will stop as soon as Malaysian authority declares full identification of all victims including Indonesian migrants that were on board.

Indonesia has been exerting efforts to help Malaysian local rescuing agency to find what was left of the capsized boat. Indonesian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Arrmanatha Nasir claims on Tuesday 8 September 2015 that the search of Indonesians from the sinking wooden boat will continue until all victims have been identified and evacuated.

“No, the search of hundreds of Indonesian from the sinking boat does not end here. We will continue our mission,” Arrmanatha said at the House of Representatives building, Jakarta, Tuesday.

Arrmanatha however said that the search will be continually monitored and will be predominantly conducted by the Malaysian authority.

This means that if they have successfully recovered the whole victims of the sinking boat, then Indonesia will no longer continue its search and likely to further its probing on the case more on the identification process of its people.

“We’ll see how it goes today. Today’s findings will help us determine whether or not the search ought to continue,” Arrmanatha further explained yesterday.

Muhammad Iqbal confirms such notion but presents developing information with him assuring the likeliness of the search to reach closure today (9/9/2015).

“If everything is going according to plan and all victims have been recovered and identified, then today, Wednesday will be the last day for Search and Rescue team to perform their mission,” Iqbal wrote.

SAR team on Tuesday successfully recovered 62 bodies with 39 bodies identified and the rest is still underway.

Scores of bodies have been pulled out of the water following the sinking of a capsized wooden boat carrying mostly Indonesian migrants on the evening of 3 September 2015.

The boat sank off the coast of western part of Malaysia not far from Malacca Straight with reports claiming that as many as 100 Indonesians have been the passengers of such overloaded and largely fragile vessel. (Akp/Ein)