Kuala Lumpur, October 18: Malaysian police detained 18 Afghan immigrants trying to sail illegally to Indonesia in a rickety boat, an official said on Sunday.
Authorities found the immigrants with two Indonesian boatmen while patrolling waters between peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia’s Sumatra Island late yesterday, said Marzuki Ismail, the marine police chief of central Selangor state.
It was believed to be the latest case involving people from restive countries — also including Iraq, Pakistan and Sri Lanka — who use Malaysia as a starting point for a hazardous sea voyage to Australia via Indonesia.
Many of them pay people smugglers to take them to Indonesia and then attempt to sail to Australia and seek asylum there. Some immigrants have died in recent months when their boats sank.
At least 10 of the Afghans detained on Saturday entered Malaysia using valid immigration documents, but all of them could face several months in prison for trying to leave the country illegally.
In June, the US State Department criticised Malaysia’s efforts to combat people smuggling as inadequate. Malaysia’s government has pledged to tackle the problem, but it says the country’s waters are too vast to patrol completely.
–Agencies