Boat Carrying Middle East Immigrants Sinks at Prigi Waters

Trenggalek, E Java, - A motorboat carrying hundreds of Middle East immigrants sank in the international waters, south of East Java's Prigi coast on Saturday. Based on information gathered by ANTARA in the field, the boat belonging to Indonesian fishermen and was hired to smuggle out illegal immigrants to Australia sank for overloading. The boat carried about 250 illegal immigrants from the Middle East, exceeding its capacity of not more than 100 passengers, according to a passenger who survived the accident. No immediate report on the official number of passengers on board. A total of 25 survivors, two of them were children, have been evacuated. (*)