Indonesia to deport 400-plus Thai, Vietnamese fishing vessel crews

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia will soon deport more than 400 Vietnamese and Thai nationals who had served as the crews of foreign fishing vessels operating illegally in Indonesian waters, Maritime and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi said here Friday.

"We have to deport them. Now, there are more than 400 Thai and Vietnamese fishing vessel crew members waiting to be deported," the minister said on the sidelines of a coordinative meeting on maritime and fishery monitoring in 2007.

The deportation would be done in coordination with several other government agencies, he said.

During 2007, a total of 200 foreign fishing vessels that had entered Indonesian waters illegally were captured by Indonesian security personnel.

The vessels` skippers and chief engineers were tried in courts of law while the rest of the crews would be deported, Numbery said.

Meanwhile, the director general of monitoring at the maritime and fisheries ministry, Aji Sularso, said the 400-plus foreign fishing boat crews were currently being held in Riau province and in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

They would be moved from Riau and Pontianak to Jakarta before being deported to their home countries.

The Vietnamese government had agreed that the Vietnamese crews would be sent home on Indonesian airline flights, while Thailand was planning to send a Hercules aircraft to Indonesia to pick up the Thai sailors.

Aji said, the deportation would be done in consideration of Indonesia`s diplomatic ties with the two Southeast Asian countries.

While the Vietnamese and Thai boat crews would be deported, their boats would remain in Indonesia, he added.