Migrant boat capsize en-route Indonesia, at least 14 dead

Rescuers carrying a body recovered from the capsized boat (C)Reuters

An overloaded wooden boat crammed with migrant workers from Indonesia has sank off the coast of Malaysia. The boat which was headed back to Indonesia on Thursday capsized leaving at least 14 people dead, among them 13 women,  a maritime official said. The boat was believed to be carrying 70 people, said First Adm. Mohamad Aliyas Hamdan, district chief of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency(MMEA). Agency official Mohamad Hambali Yaakup said the boat sank in bad sea conditions not far from the coast, and several vessels and an aircraft were searching for survivors near the coastal town of Sabak Bernam in central Selangor state.
He said the boat was believed to have been taking migrant workers home to Tanjung Balai in Indonesia's Sumatra province and was likely to have been overcrowded. Thousands of migrants from Indonesia work at construction sites, on palm plantations, in factories and domestic service across Malaysia, some without legal employment documents. Such incidents are said to be common in Malaysia.
"If they are legal, they would not leave (the country) that way," Muhammad said, when asked if the people were illegal migrants. The boat sank due to overloading and bad weather, he added.
The number of survivors stood at 19, the agency's director of search and rescue operations, Captain Robert Teh Geok Chuan, told Reuters, including 15 rescued by fishermen earlier, though the death toll could rise.
"We fear the casualty numbers will rise as it's been several hours since the boat sank," he added.
Southeast Asia faced a huge migrant crisis after Thailand cracked down on people-smuggling gangs in May, with more than 4,000 people landing in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. Hundreds are believed to have drowned. A fresh surge of refugees and migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh is expected to set out in boats for southeast Asia when the monsoon season ends in about a month, the United Nations has said.
Thursday's accident happened as Europe faces its biggest refugee crisis since World War Two, and has yet to find a common response. Thousands of people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa have died making the journey across the Mediterranean and on land in Europe, the Reuters reports.