Hunt on for 26 in boat sinking

9 die on workers’ trip home to Indonesia from Malaysia

Malaysian rescuers search Wednesday for passengers of a sunken boat near Banting.
Malaysian rescuers search Wednesday for passengers of a sunken boat near Banting.

BANTING, Malaysia -- Malaysian rescuers intensified a search today for 26 people who remained missing after an overcrowded wooden boat carrying Indonesians home in a storm sank in choppy seas.

Nine people died in the accident, and at least 62 people survived.

The boat capsized about 2 nautical miles from shore on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur while trying to leave Malaysia for Aceh province in Indonesia, maritime agency official Mohamad Hambali Yaakup said.

Hambali said more vessels and divers were deployed in the search today. A ship, 24 boats and a helicopter with some 160 staff members from the maritime agency and the Police and Fire departments were scouring the area, he said.

Tens of thousands of Indonesians work without legal permits in plantations and other industries in Malaysia, and they travel between the countries by crossing the narrow Strait of Malacca, often in poorly equipped boats.

Indonesian Ambassador Herman Prayitno said late Wednesday that the immigrants had paid up to $373 each for the trip back to Indonesia ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He said the boat was overloaded.

"It is a sad tragedy," he said. "Many of them were in the country illegally as their tourist visas had expired and they had overstayed. They were finding work here, but were on their way back to Indonesia for Ramadan."

Police told Reuters news agency that the boat lacked safety equipment such as life jackets, but that rescuers were holding out hope of finding more survivors because the vessel went down in shallow water close to shore.

Hambali said survivors were rescued at sea and found on land after swimming to safety. They included 12 women and a child. The dead were a woman and eight men, he added.

The survivors were being questioned by police and immigration authorities, and Indonesian Embassy officials were also on the scene. A Rescue Department photo showed about two dozen survivors, who had few belongings with them, sitting outside a building.

Hambali said authorities were still investigating why the boat sank, but rough seas and an overloaded boat could have been factors. It also could have hit an object, as some survivors claimed the boat was leaking, he said.

Hambali said chances of survival for more than 24 hours without a life vest were very slim.

The boat's capacity was 50-60 people, but it was believed to be carrying 97. Hambali said some survivors may have made it to shore and gone into hiding.

Such accidents are common in Malaysia, which has up to 2 million Indonesian migrants. Many sneak into neighboring Malaysia for menial work such as plantation or construction jobs and return home on boats believed to be old and unsafe.

Information for this article was contributed by Eileen Ng of The Associated Press.

A Section on 06/19/2014

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