JAKARTA – Hopes are fading for 44 people still missing more than a day after an overcrowded speedboat carrying Indonesian migrant workers capsized and sunk in rough seas, claiming at least 18 lives.
The search resumed at first light on Thursday (Nov 3) around Batam, an Indonesian island south of Singapore, with roughly 125 personnel combing the seas for any sign of survivors, local disaster agency section chief Hardin Nafii told AFP.
“We pray that hopefully those still missing are saved, and are alive,” he said.
The speedboat was carrying 98 passengers and three crew from Malaysia to Batam early Wednesday morning when it ran aground on a reef in bad weather and capsized, the disaster agency said.
Rescue teams pulled 18 bodies and 39 survivors from the sea, but called off the search as light faded. Forty-four others remain unaccounted for more than a day after the accident.
Read also: Batam boat accident: Team dispatched to identify victims
Overcrowding on boat the cause for capsize?
Police said the passengers were likely illegal Indonesian migrant workers returning from jobs in Malaysia, and the boat was over capacity at the time of the accident.
Mr Zainul Arifin, one of the survivors who worked at an oil palm plantation in Malaysia, said he was sitting at the back of the boat when sea water started coming aboard. Many Indonesians work in Malaysian factories and plantations.
“I had to jump off and start swimming,” Mr Arifin told Reuters in the port town of Nongsa on Batam.
Another survivor, Haryanto, 51, told The Jakarta Post that the boat departed from Johor Baru at 3am.
“After two hours of sailing, the boat was struck by strong waves and heavy downpour,” he said.
He added that the speedboat was so crowded that some of the passengers had to stand.
Mr Haryanto was saved by fishermen after floating in the water for about two hours.
The Indonesian media yesterday ran the list of names of those who were saved. They came from many parts of the country, including Sumatra, Lombok and Java islands.
The disaster agency revised upwards the passenger numbers late Wednesday from 93, saying the lack of a manifest made it difficult to establish exact figures aboard.
The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands is heavily dependent on boat transport, but safety standards are lax and fatal accidents common.
More than 60 people died in December when huge waves capsized a ferry charting a course through Sulawesi province.
In 2009, more than 330 people were killed after a ferry sunk off Sulawesi island in one of the worst accidents at sea in Indonesia.
