A BOAT packed with illegal immigrants from Indonesia capsized off the coast of Hutan Melintang/Sabak Bernam on Thursday. At least 24 lives were lost and many more are missing. According to the survivors, there were 70 to 80 people on the vessel, with each having paid RM700 for a passage to Tanjung Balai, Indonesia. The vessel, a fishing boat registered in Indonesia, was believed to be ferrying the human cargo home for the upcoming Hari Raya Aidiladha celebrations. Tragedy struck and for many, a watery grave ended all hope for a joyous reunion with their families. And, unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident having happened before enough times to, one would have thought, deter these sad souls. But poverty drives one to extremes of hope.
These boats, often barely seaworthy, are operated by unscrupulous boatmen, whose only intent is to profiteer from the desperation of those void of proper travel documents to return home. Safety is the last thing on the mind of the boatmen or tekong. That their activities must be monitored cannot be stressed enough. For the illegal migrants, this treacherous passage home is worth the risk of being caught, and possibly jailed, by the authorities. But every life lost in such tragic circumstances is one life too many. And, when this happens along our coastline, the authorities must surely bear responsibility for not policing the coastline tightly enough. Are the long shores on coasts of the peninsula impossible to patrol effectively? Or, does the country not have enough patrol boats to prevent the sea borders from being regularly punctured by criminals operating on the high seas? Or, in the worst-case scenario, are our marine police and maritime enforcement officials looking the other way, as this newspaper reported earlier this week on how crews of foreign fishing vessels caught fishing in Malaysian waters bribed these officials to avoid arrest? For, the problem is not just about boats capsizing. This one accident is likely the tip of the human-trafficking iceberg.
Enforcement on both sides of the border is the obvious solution to end this dastardly activity, but given the porous nature of long borders there probably is not the kind of maritime and air assets needed to combat the crime. It is therefore heartening to note that the Home Ministry has once again offered amnesty, similar to the 6P amnesty exercise last year, to these illegal migrants for a safe passage home. Those who want to take advantage of the amnesty should approach their respective embassies or consular offices for the one-way passage home. The question then is how often should the country repeat the 6P drill given the unstoppable inward flow of willing trafficking victims? Furthermore, the complaints have been about Malaysia’s manufacturers’ unwillingness to upgrade their technology to end labour-intensive production. However, when labour is cheap, the incentive does not exist. Cheap labour, though, is exploitative thus infringing on the dignity of those exploited and so must end. The law against employing illegal migrant labour is already in place. Tight enforcement and harsh punishment should be deterrent enough.