More than 200 foreign crew to be deported

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia will deport more than 200 crew of foreign vessels captured after illegally poaching fish in the country`s waters.

A senior official of the ministry of fishery and marine resources, Willem Gaspersz, said here on Monday the crew were now detained at ports close to where they were captured.

He said there were at present 104 crew from Vietnam in Natuna, 23 also from Vietnam in Pontianak, 102 in Pemangkat, West Kalimantan, and several others in eastern Indonesian regions such as Tual."

The men were captured for illegally fishing in the country`s waters in 2005 and 2006, he said.

He said the government had to allocate Rp15,000 for food for each of them from the national budget.

He said in order not to burden the state budget he had suggested deporting them immediately after the court issued rulings on them.

He said there were also fishermen from Thailand that had been captured but they had all been deported.

He said two vessels from China namely Fu Yuang Yu F68 and Jong Liong were recently seized for poaching fish in eastern Arafura waters.

A total of 2,700 tons of fish were discovered on board the vessels when they were seized, worth more than Rp50 billion, he added.