7 PMI Members Still Missing In Batam Waters, Officers Reveal Search Obstacles

JAKARTA - A joint team from the TNI, Polri and Basarnas said the tides and large sea currents were obstacles faced in the search for seven Indonesian migrant workers (PMI) bound for Malaysia, whose ship sank in the waters of Nongsa, Batam, some time ago.

"The problem is the tides and ocean currents," said Head of the Tanjung Pinang SAR Office, Slamet Riyadi, quoting Antara, Sunday, June 19.

Despite experiencing difficulties, Slamet emphasized that his team and joint officers in the field were still searching.

"The joint SAR team is still searching, a number of victims have not been found," he said.

"Our standard operation and procedure (SOP) is seven days of searching and now it's only the third day," he said. Previously, the seven missing PMIs were members of the 30 PMI whose ship sank in the waters of Nongsa, Batam.

A total of 23 PMIs have been rescued and are currently being handled by the Indonesian Navy and Riau Islands BP2MI.

The Commander of Lanal Batam, Marine Colonel (KH) Farid Ma'ruf, stated that his party and other rescue teams admitted that they were still looking for information on the seven other victims who were still in the search process.

"At this time, we still don't know the identities of the other 7 victims. We are still investigating their identities," he said in Batam, Riau Islands, Friday.

In addition, at this time his party also received information from several fishermen that there were survivors who asked for help from fishermen to be delivered to other areas.

"We also received information that apart from these 23 there were victims who were rescued by other fishermen, but asked to be taken to other areas, in order to avoid being monitored by officers who helped with the search effort," he said.