The West Nusa Tenggara Social Affairs, Population and Civil Registration Agency has dispatched a team to help identify victims of a fatal boat accident in Batam, Riau Islands.
“We dispatched a team to Batam today to account for Indonesian migrant workers hailing from NTB who died and those that had survived the accident. This is in line with the directive of the governor [NTB governor KH M.Zainul Majdi],” Agency head Ahsanul Khalik said in Mataram on Thursday.
He said the registration was needed to process the return of all victims to their hometowns in NTB. In Batam, the agency team will also coordinate with the social affairs agencies of Batam, Tanjung Pinang and Riau Islands to discuss mechanisms to return victims to their hometowns.
“Our team will stay in Batam until there are completed victim registration reports and return plans set with local administrations in Riau Islands,” said Ahsanul.
As reported earlier, a boat carrying 98 illegal Indonesian migrant workers and three crew members sank in Tanjung Bembang waters, Nongsa, Batam, after it departed from Selingi, Johor Bahru, Malaysia, on Wednesday morning.
Ahsanul said according to information as of Thursday, 25 migrant workers from NTB had survived the accident.
He said 31 people reportedly died in the accident, but had yet to confirm whether NTB migrant workers were among the deceased, as the identification process was still ongoing in Batam.
“As of Thursday morning, we have not yet received confirmation on the identities of the deceased. We are waiting for information from the team that has departed for Batam,” said Ahsanul.
