At Least 18 Die and Scores Are Missing in Indonesia Boat Accident

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/world/asia/indonesia-boat-sinking.html

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NONGSA, Indonesia — A speedboat carrying 101 people, mostly migrant workers, struck a reef and sank off an Indonesian island on Wednesday, killing at least 18 people, the country’s disaster agency said.

The accident occurred as the boat was heading from the southern Malaysian state of Johor toward Batam, an Indonesian island, just south of Singapore, according to a statement by the Indonesian national disaster mitigation agency.

The boat, carrying 98 Indonesian migrant workers and three crew members, hit the reef after being caught up in strong winds and big waves, and it sank at around dawn, the agency said.

As of Wednesday evening, 18 people were confirmed dead and 39 people had been rescued, the agency said. Rescue teams will continue to search for the remaining 44 people who were on the boat, it added.

A helicopter will be used to help in the search, a regional police chief, Sam Budigusdian, said.

One of the survivors, Zainul Arifin, who worked at an oil palm plantation in Malaysia, said he was sitting at the back of the boat when seawater started coming aboard. “I had to jump off and start swimming,” Mr. Arifin said in the port town of Nongsa on Batam Island, where he was taken after he was rescued.

Many Indonesians work in factories and on plantations in Malaysia. People in the region typically use speedboats and ferries for transportation, but boat accidents are common in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, where safety regulations are irregularly enforced.