Ongoing search for 25 missing people after 14 survivors and boat were found on a beach in Tanjung Balau.

At least 11 Indonesian migrants have drowned off the southern coast of Peninsular Malaysia after their vessel capsized.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and the country’s navy said 25 people were missing after 14 survivors and the boat was found on a beach in Tanjung Balau.

The MMEA said the boat capsized at around 4:30 a.m. (11:30 p.m. GMT Tuesday) on Wednesday off the coast of Johor state, which borders Singapore and sits across the Straits of Malacca, one of the canals of busiest maritime trade in the world, from Indonesia.

“The boat is said to have traveled from Indonesia and capsized after being struck by strong waves,” Johor deputy director of maritime operations, Captain Simon Templer Lo Ak Tusa, told reporters.

Everyone on the ship was Indonesian, MMEA said.

The accident is the latest in a series of disasters recorded in the waterways between Indonesia and Malaysia in recent years, often involving overloaded boats carrying workers seeking work in Malaysian factories and plantations.

According to Anis Hidayah of Migrant CARE, a Jakarta-based non-governmental organization, between 100,000 and 200,000 Indonesians illegally travel to Malaysia each year for work, many of whom are recruited by trafficking gangs and subjected to trafficking. operation upon arrival.

“They go to Malaysia by boat and there are so many accidents because they leave at night and arrive early in the morning,” she told Reuters news agency, adding that the boats are shattered. often stop before reaching land to avoid detection and to force those on board to swim. down.

People search Tanjung Balau beach after capsized boat carrying migrants [Royal Malaysian Army/Handout via Reuters]