Antara News·Indonesia·Thursday, September 3, 2026 at 04:09 AM

Dumai Naval Base hunts boatman who smuggled 16 people from Malaysia

Translate

Bayu AA, Rahmad Nasution

Dumai, Riau (ANTARA) - Indonesia’s Dumai Naval Base is pursuing a boatman who transported eight Bangladeshi nationals and eight Indonesian migrant workers illegally from Malaysia to Dumai, Riau Province, authorities said.

Dumai Naval Base commander Colonel Agung Nugroho Kusumaji said authorities had identified the boatman and determined he was not from Dumai.

“The boatman is still being pursued. We have identified him, and he is not from Dumai,” Agung said in Dumai on Wednesday.

The boatman operated a speedboat carrying 16 people from Malaysia that landed at Purnama Beach in Dumai Barat Subdistrict on Monday (August 31), he said, adding that when officers approached, the passengers and boatman tried to flee by jumping toward the beach.

Officers initially detained three Indonesian migrant workers with the speedboat. After searching the area, they found five more workers and eight Bangladeshi nationals, Agung said.

A total of 16 passengers were detained, while the boatman who transported them remained at large and was being pursued.

The case began with information received on Sunday (August 30) about plans to transport undocumented Indonesian migrant workers and foreign nationals from Malaysia to Indonesia through Dumai’s coast.

The Dumai Naval Base Quick Response Team, Naval Intelligence Team B, and Fleet I Naval Intelligence Task Force then conducted surveillance around the area.

The migrant workers told authorities they paid 6.5 million to 9.5 million rupiah (about US$370 to US$540) each for the journey from Malaysia to Indonesia, Agung said.

The workers came from several regions, including Sulawesi, Medan, and Java.

“The eight migrant workers and eight foreign nationals will be handed over to the Dumai Migrant Worker Protection Service and Dumai Immigration Office for registration and further processing,” Agung said.

Meanwhile, Dumai Immigration Office head Ruhiyat M. Tolib said everyone entering Indonesia must pass through an official immigration checkpoint.

Dumai Immigration will coordinate with the Immigration Detention Center under the Riau Regional Immigration Directorate to handle the eight Bangladeshi nationals.

View the original on Antara News →

KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.