LUMUT: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) have succeeded in freeing a local fishing boat which was detained by an Indonesian Fisheries Surveillance vessel at 26.4 nautical miles south east of Pulau Jarak, here today.
Perak MMEA acting director, Maritime Commander Shahrizan Raman said the local fishing boat was freed after a negotiation after it was detained for allegedly failing to hoist a Malaysian flag and its crew of four did not have work permits.
He said that MMEA received a complaint from the Lumut-based Maritime Monitoring System on the detention of the boat about 0.5 nautical miles from the Malaysia-Indonesia Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) at about 7am.
‘’Acting on the complaint, MMEA mobilised a patrol boat headed by Sub Lieutenant Maritime Mohd Shahrizan Mohd Hashim to the location for confirmation and to hold a negotiation.
‘’The local fishing boat was allegedly detained for not putting up the Malaysian flag. The four crew members, comprising two Thais and two Cambodians, also did not have permits to work on the boat,‘’ he said in a statement today.
Shahrizan said that as a result of the negotiation the boat and crew, aged 29 to 68 years, were handed over to MMEA and taken to the Perak MMEA jetty. — Bernama
