3 Bodies Of PMI Victims Drowning In South Korea Found And Identified

Illustration (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - A total of seven Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) drowned due to a ship accident that sank off the southern coast of Tongyeong City, South Korea.

Three PMIs of whom have been found dead and have been identified.

The 7 PMIs are crew members (ABK). The 29 tonne ship carrying 9 crew members including 7 PMIs suddenly capsized in the waters located 68 kilometers south of Tongyeong Island, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea last Saturday, March 9.

Although 3 bodies have been found, the Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Agency (BP2MI) continues to coordinate with the Indonesian Embassy in South Korea to search for the 4 PMIs who are still missing.

"There are still four Indonesian citizens who (are in search). Hopefully we will convey it to the ambassador in South Korea," said Head of BP2M Benny Rhamdani in his statement, Sunday, March 17.

Benny said that if the sinking ship incident occurred, it was suspected that the weather was bad, causing the ship to sink.

Therefore, his party plans to encourage the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kemenlu) to give a diplomatic statement to the South Korean Government.

"Our question is, why in such a bad situation the ship is still allowed to sail to catch fish. Then BP2MI will send a letter on Monday to the Foreign Minister to dare to issue a diplomatic note to the Korean government through the company that can be held accountable," he said.

"I think this is usually done by the government and the government. There will be no attempt to injure relations between Indonesia and Korea," he added.

Meanwhile, the three PMI bodies that have been found are Maulana Mansyur from Sukabumi, West Java, R Arie Permana from Sumedang, West Java, and Safrudin from Berebes, Central Java.

The three bodies of the crew were transported using Garuda Indonesia aircraft type Airbus A330-343, flight number GA879 on the Jakarta route which landed at around 15.55 WIB at the Soetta Airport Cargo Terminal, Saturday, March 16.

"Finally today, three bodies were returned and arrived in Indonesia," said Benny to reporters.