Hijacked boat found drifting off Sumbawa island<\/p>\n
Agencies, Mataram<\/p>\n
A boat reportedly hijacked last week by 170 Australia-bound
\nAfghan and Iraqi asylum-seekers has been found in the sea off
\nSumbawa island, West Nusa Tenggara, news reports said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Sinar Bontang, whose crew was allegedly cast overboard
\nlast week by its asylum-seeker passengers, was found drifting in
\nthe sea off Sangeang island some 40 kilometers north of the
\ndistrict town of Bima, Sumbawa island, Antara news agency
\nreported from West Nusa Tenggara capital of Mataram.<\/p>\n
The boat's engine had stalled, the news agency said.<\/p>\n
\"The immigrants were transported by the motorized sail boat
\nSinar Bontang which had left South Sulawesi for Australia,\" the
\nWest Nusa Tenggara province's regional secretary Abdullah Abu
\nBakar told the agency.<\/p>\n
He gave no date of the incident, but said that the 170 asylum
\nseekers were now being taken ashore on smaller boats.<\/p>\n
The authorities plan to move them to Bima as quickly as
\npossible, he said.<\/p>\n
Bima Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ishaka Usman told Reuters
\nthat the hijacked boat was reportedly recovered after locals in a
\nvillage on the eastern part of Sumbawa island discovered the
\nasylum-seekers whose boat had run aground in a nearby inlet on
\nSaturday evening.<\/p>\n
\"Locals first found the immigrants on Saturday night. They
\nwere trying to find food and water,\" Ishaka told Reuters by
\nphone.<\/p>\n
\"They wanted to go to Australia but are now on the island
\nunder our surveillance. Their boat had engine problems,\" he
\nadded.<\/p>\n
But Ishaka said the boat's captain who remained on the vessel
\ndenied it had been hijacked, even though one crew member who fled
\nthe ship and was rescued by the Indonesian Navy said it had been
\ntaken over by Iraqi asylum seekers.<\/p>\n
Ishaka said Iraqis were also among the 170 passengers.<\/p>\n
The Navy said the boat was hijacked on Wednesday in the
\nFlores Sea.<\/p>\n
Authorities had been hunting for the hijacked boat for days.<\/p>\n
The ship's seizure was the first such case to be reported in
\nIndonesia after several years of being used as a transit point
\nfor asylum-seekers mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq hoping to
\nreach Australia.<\/p>\n
It follows a tragic case reported this week in which over 350
\nSouth Asian and Middle Eastern refugees drowned when their
\novercrowded vessel sank off the Java island on Oct. 19<\/p>\n
Survivors of the tragedy have revealed that many of the
\npassengers did not want to board the small vessel but had been
\nforced to do so by the \"people smugglers\" who had arranged their
\nperilous voyage for a fee.<\/p>\n
Indonesian has called for a regional meeting on the rising
\ntide of \"boat people\" to seek a solution to the problem,
\ninvolving participants from both the countries of origin, such as
\nIraq and Afghanistan and the transit countries such as Indonesia
\nand Malaysia.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/hijacked-boat-found-drifting-off-sumbawa-island-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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