"Our fellow citizens (who died in the incident) are the victims of human trafficking," she noted here on Tuesday.
She remarked that the case of the illegal Indonesian migrant workers was not the first of its kind, but it has occurred several times, adding that the problem would not be solved unless the root cause, which is human trafficking, was tackled.
A boat carrying illegal Indonesian migrant workers capsized in the Sabak Berenam waters in Selangor, Malaysia, 16 kilometers away from the coast.
It is believed that the 15-meter-long and three-meter-wide wooden boat had sunk due to overcapacity and bad weather while carrying migrant workers home for the Eid al-Adha holiday.
Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the director of citizen protection and Indonesian legal entities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also pointed out that overcapacity was most likely the cause of the incident.
"According to Malaysian fishermen, the boat was carrying 100 passengers, while it had a capacity to only carry 70 passengers when the incident occurred," he noted.
He stated that the Indonesian and Malaysian governments would cooperate to find ways to prevent such an incident from recurring in future.
"We are committed to conducting bilateral discussions with the Malaysian government to ensure that such an incident will not happen again in the future," he added.
A total of 62 bodies have been found, and 18 of them have been identified, while 20 others have been saved.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2015
