Polisi Tahan Satu ABK Kapal Tenggelam di Batam, Puluhan Korban Masih Hilang
Indonesia Detains One Crewman of Crashed Boat, Dozens Still Missing
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
POLISI pada Kamis menahan salah satu anak buah kapal (ABK) dari kapal yang tenggelam di Perairan Nongsa sehari sebelumnya, sementara tim pencari dan penyelamatan menjejahi perairan sekitar untuk mencari puluhan penumpang yang hilang.
Peristiwa naas itu terjadi ketika kapal, mengangkut tenaga kerja Indonesia (TKI) ilegal, sedang menuju Pulau Batam di Provinsi Kepulauan Riau, setelah bertolak dari negara bagian Johor di selatan Malaysia.
Kapal naas, mengangkut 98 pekerja dan tiga awak, menabrak karang saat diterjang angin kencang dan gelombang besar. Delapan belas orang tewas dan 39 korban ditemukan dalam kondisi selamat.
Tim penyelamat beranggotakan 280 orang melakukan upaya evakuasi pada Kamis pagi, setelah pencarian 44 korban dihentikan malam sebelumnya, kata Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, Kepala Pusat Data Informasi dan Humas Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB).
Polisi sedang memburu nakhoda kapal yang dikabarkan melarikan diri, sementara kru kapal ketiga belum diketahui nasibnya, kata Airlangga, Pelaksana Tugas Kepala Bidang Humas Polda Kepulauan Riau.
"Seorang ABK ditahan dan kami sedang mengejar kapten kapal, karena mereka bertanggung jawab atas kejadian ini," kata Airlangga yang dihubungi via telepon.
"Mereka melanggar ketentuan transportasi laut, dan mereka juga mengangkut penumpang secara ilegal."
Sebagian besar TKI pulang ke tanah air setelah masa tinggal mereka di Malaysia habis, kata Airlangga, seraya menambahkan bahwa kapal tenggelam bukan karena kelebihan muatan.
Badan bencana mengatakan tidak adanya manifest penumpang membuatnya sulit untuk menentukan jumlah pasti penumpang di atas kapal.
Zainul Arifin, salah satu korban, yang bekerja di sebuah perkebunan kelapa sawit di Malaysia, mengaku sedang duduk di belakang perahu ketika air laut masuk ke kapal.
"Saya harus melompat dan mulai berenang," kata Arifin kepada Reuters di Pelabuhan Nongsa, Batam . Dia membayar sekitar Rp3,7 juta untuk mendapatkan tiket kapal.
Banyak TKI bekerja di pabrik dan perkebunan di Malaysia seperti dilansir MailOnline.
INDONESIAN police on Thursday detained one of the crew of a packed speedboat that crashed off an Indonesian island a day earlier, while a search-and-rescue team scoured the waters for dozens of missing passengers.
The accident happened as the boat, carrying numerous illegal Indonesian workers, was heading for Indonesia's island of Batam, having departed from Malaysia's southern state of Johor.
The boat, with 98 workers and three crew on board, struck a reef in strong winds and big waves. Eighteen people were killed and 39 were pulled from the waters alive.
A 280-strong team resumed the evacuation effort early on Thursday, after the search for the other 44 was halted the previous evening, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the Indonesian national disaster mitigation agency.
Police were looking for the captain of the ship, who had fled, and the fate of the third crew member was unknown, said Airlangga, a police spokesman for the Riau Islands, which include Batam.
"The crew is being detained and we are chasing the captain as well, because they are responsible for this incident," Airlangga, who goes by one name, like many Indonesians, said by telephone.
"They violated the shipping law, and they were also transporting people illegally."
Most of the Indonesian workers were returning home after overstaying in Malaysia, Airlangga said, adding that the boat should not have not been so overloaded.
The disaster agency said the lack of a passenger manifest had made it tough to determine the exact number aboard.
Zainul Arifin, one of the survivors, who worked at an oil palm plantation in Malaysia, said he was seated at the back of the boat when it started flooding with seawater.
"I had to jump off and start swimming," Arifin told Reuters in the Batam port town of Nongsa. He had paid 1,200 ringgit ($287) for the boat ride, he added.
Many Indonesians work in Malaysian factories and plantations. Boat accidents are common in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of more than 17,000 islands. ($1=4.1850 ringgit)
