SIX ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DEAD AFTER BOAT CAPSIZES

Pekanbaru, May 29 (ANTARA) - A boat carrying illegal immigrants from Afghanistan capsized in the waters in Riau, Sumatra, on Thursday leaving at least six dead and dozen others still missing.

The police chief of the Rokan Hilir district, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Rohmad Nursaid said in his confirmation to ANTARA that the incident occurred at around 06.30 in the Halang Island waters in the subdistrict of Kubu, Rokan Hilir.

He said it was estimated as many as 36 people were on board the boat, who were all illegal immigrants from Afghanistan.

Until Thursday afternoon six of them had been found dead, 16 others safe and 14 others still missing.

"It is believed the boat capsized after hitting a pole of a fish trap set up in the Kubu Island waters. It is believed conditions at the time of incident were dark and misty making the boat skipper unable to see the pole," he said.

He said the authorities had so far been able to identify the survivors only while identities of the dead victims were difficult to know as they all had no passports.

"The survivors were discovered by fishermen floating in the sea," he said.

He said the dead victims had been evacuated to local hospital in Bagan Siapiapi around 30 minutes by sea from Kubu while the survivors mostly injured were treated in a health service center in Kubu.

The chief of a navy post in Rohil, second lieutenant Almufid said according to survivors the boat carried the illegal immigrants from Malaysia. He said the wooden boat was believed to be over capacity.

He said search was still being carried out to find the missing people, adding the skipper and crew of the boat had not yet been found for questioning.

"The survivors will immediately be referred to the immigration office in Bagan Siapiapi," he said.

He admitted that Rohali had often been used as an entry point for illegal immigrants from Afghanistan who chose Indonesia as their destination country upon consideration that it was easier to get jobs in the country without proper documents.

On May 15 the police in Rohil arrested 17 illegal immigrants from Afghanistan sailing from Malaysia. Usually the illegal immigrants used a wooden boat and they would continue their journey by land to Medan in Sumatra or Jakarta.